Corruptionhttp://www.businessinsider.com/category/corruption
en-usFri, 18 Aug 2017 01:42:26 -0400Fri, 18 Aug 2017 01:42:26 -0400The latest news on Corruption from Business Insiderhttp://static3.businessinsider.com/assets/images/bilogo-250x36-wide-rev.pngBusiness Insiderhttp://www.businessinsider.com
http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-military-role-in-political-crisis-and-violence-2017-8Venezuela's military is on edge, and it could be the wildcard in the country's deepening crisishttp://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-military-role-in-political-crisis-and-violence-2017-8
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 17:35:55 -0400Christopher Woody
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/598991654fc3c0bb188b4bb3-1500/vladimir padrino venezuela.jpg" alt="Vladimir Padrino Venezuela" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Marco Bello" data-mce-caption="Venezuela's Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino speaks during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela August 1, 2017." /></p><p></p>
<p>Venezuela's deep crises took a more intense turn on Sunday, when a group of dissident soldiers attacked a military base in the city of Valencia, west of the capital, Caracas.</p>
<p>The Venezuelan government said two people were killed in the "paramilitary" attack on the base, carried out by former and active army officers and civilians.</p>
<p>Government forces repelled the attack, but several of the assailants were able to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/raid-on-venezuelan-base-got-help-from-active-officers-1502143201" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">get away with</a> nearly 100 assault rifles and several grenade launchers.</p>
<p>Two people <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-armed-forces-repel-terrorist-attack-at-military-base-officials-say-1502026982?mg=prod/accounts-wsj" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">were killed</a>, including one of the assailants and an opposition activist who was part of a demonstration that gathered near the base to support the attackers inside.</p>
<p>"The scoundrels have been defeated," Army chief Gen. Jesus Suarez said. President Nicolas Maduro, who called the group "mercenaries," <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/06/world/americas/venezuela-nicholas-maduro-military-base-attacked.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> they headed straight for the base's weapons cache, with about half the group fighting soldiers for three hours before being subdued. The attack was followed by a nationwide <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-idUSKBN1AN298" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">manhunt</a> for those involved.</p>
<p>The attack came around the same time a group of armed men in military fatigues released <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/06/world/americas/venezuela-nicholas-maduro-military-base-attacked.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a video</a> in which they said, "We declare ourselves in legitimate rebellion, united more than ever with the valiant state of Venezuela, to disavow the murderous tyranny of Nicolas Maduro."</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/598988215124c9507cc0a34e-800/venezuela-using-excessive-force-arrests-to-crush-protests-un.jpg" alt="Members of security forces stand guard during clashes with demonstrators near Fuerte Paramacay military base in Valencia, Venezuela August 6, 2017. REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Members of security forces stand guard during clashes with demonstrators near Fuerte Paramacay military base in Valencia" /></p>
<p>Local media <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/06/world/americas/venezuela-nicholas-maduro-military-base-attacked.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> the spokesman who appeared on the video was Capt. Juan Carlos Caguaripano, a dissident officer from the country's national guard who has been wanted since 2014, when he was accused of a plot to overthrow Maduro.</p>
<p><span>&ldquo;We don't recognize the tyranny of assassin Nicolas Maduro,&rdquo; Caguaripano <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-armed-forces-repel-terrorist-attack-at-military-base-officials-say-1502026982?mg=prod/accounts-wsj" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> on the video, adding that the group's call for an uprising was not an attempt to launch a coup, but rather <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/06/world/americas/venezuela-nicholas-maduro-military-base-attacked.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a call</a> for "civic and military action to re-establish constitutional order."</span></p>
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/5973a1e15124c94813d99a74-640/violence-flares-in-caracas-at-anti-maduro-march-violinist-hurt.jpg" alt="Riot security forces clash with demonstrators rallying against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, July 22, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Bello" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Riot security forces clash with demonstrators rallying against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas" /></span></p>
<p><span>Other members of the country's security forces have publicly rebelled against the Maduro government in recent months. </span></p>
<p><span>Giomar Flores, a low-ranking naval officer, fled to Colombia and&nbsp;released a video in June <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelans-watch-the-military-for-signs-of-fraying-loyalty/2017/08/06/a143dcea-7ae0-11e7-b2b1-aeba62854dfa_story.html?tid=ss_tw&amp;utm_term=.d1d108139ac1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">calling</a> on the military to uphold the constitution.</span></p>
<p><span>Flores, 25, had been in charge of policing food lines in Falcon state, which turned him against the government. </span></p>
<p><span>"I decided my future was worth more than a bag of food," he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelans-watch-the-military-for-signs-of-fraying-loyalty/2017/08/06/a143dcea-7ae0-11e7-b2b1-aeba62854dfa_story.html?tid=ss_tw&amp;utm_term=.350b249fd2d0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> the Associated Press.</span></p>
<p><span>That same month, a rebel police commander seized a helicopter and flew over government buildings in Caracas, firing shots at the Interior Ministry and dropping grenades on the Supreme Court. The government called the pilot, Oscar Perez, a "psychopath" and members of the opposition suggested it could've been a government plot.</span></p>
<p><span>Perez posted a video of himself in front of four hooded armed men and claimed&nbsp;to represent a coalition of security and civilian officials rising up against "tyranny," but there were few signs he had a large base of support.</span></p>
<p><span><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/59810b8c5124c91b30c9c9fa-800/all-eyes-on-venezuela-military-after-protests-vote-2017-8.jpg" alt="FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator is detained at a rally during a strike called to protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas, Venezuela, July 27, 2017 . REUTERS/Marco Bello/File Photo" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator is detained at a rally during a strike called to protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas" /></span></p>
<p><span>These events have come amid a period of protests that have left at least 120 people dead <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-mother-of-all-protests-insane-photos-from-the-ground-2017-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">since the end of April</a>. Thousands have also been arrested during those protests.&nbsp;</span><span>This month, the government convened a widely condemned constituent assembly that ousted the attorney general and <a href="https://apnews.com/442d43baabec4fb99c2c6c2b904960af/The-Latest:-New-Venezuela-assembly-displaces-congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">declared</a> itself superior to all other branches of government.</span></p>
<p><span>Some members of the national guard, which has led the government's effort to police the protests, have admitted that they are exhausted by the work and are both impoverished and hungry, but most remain impassive while on duty, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-military-idUSKBN19R0BG" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">according</a> to Reuters.</span></p>
<p><span>Even with widespread discontent among the public and signs of it among law-enforcement and military bodies, it's not clear that a large-scale revolt &mdash; like the failed one led by Hugo Chavez, then a lieutenant in the army, in 1992 &mdash; will emerge.</span></p>
<p><span>The opposition has called on members of the military to break from the government, as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-military-exercises-amid-nationwide-unrest-2016-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">it has in the past</a>,</span><span> but the main opposition coalition has <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-epic-collapse-of-venezuelas-opposition" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">struggled</a> to present a coherent strategy.</span></p>
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/597c4fc35124c94732b94f64-800/phone-calls-dismissal-threats-venezuela-pressures-state-workers-to-vote.jpg" alt="Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro waves during a pro-government rally with workers of state-run oil company PDVSA, in Barcelona, Venezuela July 8, 2017. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS " data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro waves during a pro-government rally with workers of state-run oil company PDVSA, in Barcelona" /></span></p>
<p><span>"There&rsquo;s lots of unease, but they can&rsquo;t provoke a political change without a clear horizon of what comes after Maduro," Hebert Garcia Plaza, a former army general who sought exile in the US in 2015, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelans-watch-the-military-for-signs-of-fraying-loyalty/2017/08/06/a143dcea-7ae0-11e7-b2b1-aeba62854dfa_story.html?tid=ss_tw&amp;utm_term=.d1d108139ac1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> the AP.</span></p>
<p><span>The scale and depth of any rifts in the military remain unclear. </span></p>
<p><span>And while a united military could act as a "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-military-exercises-amid-nationwide-unrest-2016-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">king-maker</a>" among those vying for power, divisions within it could <a href="https://twitter.com/Perez1oj/status/895020896590729216" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">benefit</a> the government in the short-term.</span></p>
<p><span>Much of the 150,000-strong military's leadership is wed to the government, through both personal interest and ideological background.</span></p>
<p>"Chavez engaged in a very deep effort, deep program to change basically the entire ethos of the military, from it being far more aligned with a Western mentality of subservience to civilian factions to far more in line with the aims of the government," Alejandro Velasco, a professor at New York University, told Business Insider in early July.</p>
<p>"And as he also introduced more and more ideas about socialism in the 21st century, there was a far greater sense of the mission of the military being ... more aligned with socialist impulses," Velasco said. Chavez coupled that effort with a purge of dissidents and promotion of loyalists.</p>
<p>Maduro has also promoted <a href="https://twitter.com/jpolga/status/894632514601590786" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nearly 900 officers</a> to the rank of general or admiral since he took office in mid-2013. Those generals enjoy <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/world/americas/nicolas-maduro-venezuela-military.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Famericas&amp;_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">special privileges</a>, including better pay, favorable exchange rates, and control of the food supply. Current or retired generals also hold 11 of the country's 23 state governorship and 11 of its 30 ministries.</p>
<p>A number of high-ranking officers have also been linked to drug trafficking and other criminal activities &mdash; such as those allegedly <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-indicts-venezuela-officials-drug-trafficking-2016-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">in the Cartel of the Suns</a> or those suspected of directing <a href="https://apnews.com/64794f2594de47328b910dc29dd7c996" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">scarce food products</a> to the black market for personal gain.</p>
<p><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5744c02c52bcd05c658c4b88-2400/rtsfc5s.jpg" alt="Venezuela Maduro military politics" data-mce-source="Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS" data-mce-caption="Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, second from the left in the back row, poses for a photo with militia members during a military parade in La Guaira, Venezuela, May 21, 2016." /></p>
<p><span>Maduro has come to depend on those officials to keep him in power, and for many of them, loyalty, privilege, and the desire to avoid prosecution are major reasons not to break with the government. </span></p>
<p><span>"The military has hijacked Maduro and he has hijacked the military," Venezuelan history professor </span><span>Margarita Lopez Maya said in <a href="http://venezuelablog.tumblr.com/post/144804742705/margarita-l%C3%B3pez-maya-we-need-to-create-a-path">an interview</a> in spring 2016. </span>Despite opposition promises not to pursue them if it took power, "many would rather trust the devil they know than the one they don't," Garcia Plaza, the former general, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelans-watch-the-military-for-signs-of-fraying-loyalty/2017/08/06/a143dcea-7ae0-11e7-b2b1-aeba62854dfa_story.html?tid=ss_tw&amp;utm_term=.d1d108139ac1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> the AP.</p>
<p>Many of Venezuela's lower-ranking troops have not accrued such privileges and are more exposed to the hardship that has afflicted the majority of Venezuelans in recent years.</p>
<p>Enlisted men "are suffering from the conditions of everyone else," Velasco, author of "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Barrio-Rising-Popular-Politics-Venezuela/dp/0520283325" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Barrio Rising: Urban Popular Politics and the Making of Modern Venezuela</a>," told Business Insider.</p>
<p>"They have more access to food and services than the rest of the population, but they come from barrios and they see how their people in those barrios are struggling," he said. "And so to the extent they are rising up, or they would rise up, it would be, again, more out of desperation."</p>
<p>"The armed forces today are like a snake, whose head is the top command that sadly is subordinated to the regime," Flores, the naval intelligence officer who defected to Colombia, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelans-watch-the-military-for-signs-of-fraying-loyalty/2017/08/06/a143dcea-7ae0-11e7-b2b1-aeba62854dfa_story.html?tid=ss_tw&amp;utm_term=.d1d108139ac1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> the AP. "If you cut off the head, you'll find us the troops."</p>
<p><span><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/5989923476084ac4198b65dc-768/afp-venezuela-army-hunts-rebels-behind-raid-on-military-base.jpg" alt="Venezuela Opposition Activists" data-mce-source="AFP/Ronaldo Schemidt" data-mce-caption="Venezuelan opposition activists build a barricade during clashes in Valencia, on August 6, 2017." /></span></p>
<p>The Maduro government has secured the loyalty of many in military through enticements, but it also keeps an eye on the mood and actions of those in uniform in order to preempt any dissent.</p>
<p>Between the start of protests in late April and mid-June, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-military-idUSKBN19R0BG" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">at least 123 members</a> of the country's armed forces have been detained, including officers and enlisted men from all branches. Nearly 30 had been arrested for deserting or abandoning their posts, almost 40 for rebellion, treason, or insubordination, and most of the rest for theft.</p>
<p><span>"This shows low morale and discontent and, of course, economic necessity," a former army general <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-military-idUSKBN19R0BG" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> of the detentions in early July, asking not to be named for fear of reprisals.</span></p>
<p><span><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/54e769be69bedd584e6dff08-2400/rtr4pcx8.jpg" alt="venezuela" data-mce-source="Reuters/Jorge Silva" data-mce-caption="Opposition students march next to national guards during a march against President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas February 12, 2015.." /></span></p>
<p>"It's very hard to create critical mass without being found out," Ivan Briscoe, head Latin American analyst for the International Crisis Group, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuelans-watch-the-military-for-signs-of-fraying-loyalty/2017/08/06/a143dcea-7ae0-11e7-b2b1-aeba62854dfa_story.html?tid=ss_tw&amp;utm_term=.d1d108139ac1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> the AP. "In an era of instant digital communications, authorities can be alerted to the risk of destabilization very quickly."</p>
<p><span>In the face of such obstacles, a small-scale campaign of resistance is more likely.</span></p>
<p><span>Garcia Plaza <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/raid-on-venezuelan-base-got-help-from-active-officers-1502143201" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> The Wall Street Journal that active-duty officers had told him the attackers at the base in Valencia had escaped with nearly 200 40 mm grenades and seven shoulder-held grenade launchers. </span></p>
<p><span>With that kind of armament, he said armed groups could soon appear.</span></p>
<p><span>"You should expect to see smaller uprisings instead of major conspiracies in Venezuela," Harold Trinkunas, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/world/americas/nicolas-maduro-venezuela-military.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Famericas&amp;_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">told</a> The New York Times. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s difficult to coordinate, the military is watched closely, there is a lot of fear of being denounced if you say anything against the government."</span></p>
<p><span>"When the right of political expression is stolen from you, the only thing left is insurgency," Garcia Plaza <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/raid-on-venezuelan-base-got-help-from-active-officers-1502143201" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a>.</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/latin-american-governments-political-benefit-from-venezuelas-crisis-2017-8" >Some Latin American governments are making the most of Venezuela's deepening crisis</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-military-role-in-political-crisis-and-violence-2017-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/helima-croft-rbc-commodities-oil-market-venezuela-2017-7">RBC commodity chief: The oil market has a lot riding on Venezuela</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-philippines-duterte-announces-dead-or-alive-bounties-2017-8Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announces 'dead or alive' bounties for police involved in drugshttp://www.businessinsider.com/afp-philippines-duterte-announces-dead-or-alive-bounties-2017-8
Wed, 09 Aug 2017 09:21:00 -0400
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/59803c0e5124c92306675a55-800/philippine-police-watching-muslim-hitmen-ahead-of-international-gathering-2017-8.jpg" alt="FILE PHOTO - Police line up for a flag-raising ceremony outside a station in Quezon City Police District in Manila, Philippines April 3, 2017. REUTERS/Andrew RC Marshall " data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Police line up for a flag-raising ceremony outside a station in Quezon City Police District in Manila" /></p><p></p>
<p>Manila (AFP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday announced "dead-or-alive" bounties worth $40,000 each for policemen he accused of helping an accused narco-politician, and said he preferred they be killed.</p>
<p>The call for police officers to kill their colleagues is the latest inflammatory comment by Duterte in his controversial drug war, which has claimed thousands of lives, and comes shortly after a meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.</p>
<p>Duterte made the offer during a speech at national police headquarters, offering two million pesos ($40,000) for an unspecified number of officers who allegedly helped a mayor killed in an anti-drug operation on July 30.</p>
<p>"Each of those policemen carry on their heads now, I am announcing, two million per head and you are free to go on leave (to pursue them)," Duterte told the officers in the audience.</p>
<p>"I'll cut short my speech so that you will have a chance for a crack at the two million for those idiots."</p>
<p>Duterte added the bounty would be paid if the policemen were found "dead or alive &mdash; better dead."</p>
<p>He said the unidentified policemen had worked with Reynaldo Parojinog, the mayor of the southern city of Ozamiz, who was killed in the pre-dawn raid along with his wife, his brother and 13 other people.</p>
<p>Police said they were forced to kill the 16 people in self-defence, but Parojinog's lawyer has insisted the mayor and others had not resisted arrest. Duterte had accused Parojinog of being a major drug trafficker.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/598aeb345124c9fd393bd67d-800/afp-philippines-duterte-announces-dead-or-alive-bounties.jpg" alt="Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte inspects a police honour guard" border="0" /></p>
<p>As he has done in similar cases of alleged extrajudicial killings, Duterte on Wednesday also vowed to give legal protection to the policemen who killed Parojinog and the other 15.</p>
<p>If they were found guilty of murder, he would pardon them, he vowed.</p>
<p>Duterte easily won presidential elections last year after promising an unprecedented war on drugs in which tens of thousands of people would be killed.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/595a4f125124c9d078289824-800/philippine-senate-committee-to-investigate-actions-of-anti-drug-police.jpg" alt="FILE PHOTO: A policeman holds his weapon as people pass by during a drug raid in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, October 12, 2016. To match Special Report PHILIPPINES-DUTERTE/DOA REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photo" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="FILE PHOTO: A policeman holds his weapon during a drug raid in Quezon City, Metro Manila" /></p>
<p>Since he took office in the middle of last year, police have confirmed killing more than 3,400 people in anti-drug operations.</p>
<p>More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes and thousands more murdered in unexplained circumstances, according to police data.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Rights groups say many of those victims have been killed by government-backed vigilantes, and Duterte has boasted that he would be "happy to slaughter" three million drug addicts.</p>
<p>Former US president Barack Obama was among the many international critics of Duterte's tactics.&nbsp;</p>
<p>But criticism from the United States, the Philippines' former colonial ruler and mutual defence partner, has been toned down under the administration of Donald Trump.</p>
<p>Tillerson met Duterte in Manila on Monday on the sidelines of a regional security forum. Duterte said American officials did not raise any concerns with him.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/foreign-diplomats-laugh-at-trump-but-are-no-closer-to-figuring-him-out-2017-8" >Foreign diplomats are laughing at Trump, but they're no closer to figuring him out</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-philippines-duterte-announces-dead-or-alive-bounties-2017-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rodrigo-duterte-congratulates-donald-trump-victory-philippines-president-election-barack-obama-crackdown-2016-11">Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte congratulates Trump on a 'well-deserved victory'</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/british-american-tobacco-bribery-charges-serious-fraud-office-inquiry-2017-8The Serious Fraud Office is investigating British American Tobacco for briberyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/british-american-tobacco-bribery-charges-serious-fraud-office-inquiry-2017-8
Tue, 01 Aug 2017 04:15:52 -0400Camilla Hodgson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/598038d6d7f5a4198b5dcb77-765/screen shot 2017-08-01 at 084038.png" alt="Nicandro Durante, BAT CEO" data-mce-source="WelcomeToBAT, YouTube" data-mce-caption="Nicandro Durante, BAT CEO" data-link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RxMseqqtrc" /></p><p>LONDON &ndash; The Serious Fraud Office&nbsp;opened an investigation into&nbsp;British American Tobacco in relation to corruption and bribery allegations.</p>
<p>The company is alleged to have bribed officials in East Africa to soften anti-smoking legislation, accusations brought to light in 2015 by whistleblower Paul Hopkins.</p>
<p>Hopkins, who had worked for BAT in Kenya for 13 years, leaked hundreds of documents &mdash; including internal emails and secret recordings he had made &mdash; which showed BAT officials engaged in bribery with local politicians and civil servants.</p>
<p>The leaked material formed the basis of BBC Panorama's "The Secrets of Big Tobacco."</p>
<p>BAT said last week it had hired Linklaters to look into the charges. "As previously announced, we are investigating, through external legal advisers, allegations of misconduct. We have been co-operating with the Serious Fraud Office and British American Tobacco has been informed that the SFO has now opened a formal investigation. BAT intends to co-operate with that investigation," the company said on Tuesday in a statement.</p>
<p>"The SFO confirms it is investigating suspicions of corruption in the conduct of businesses by BAT Plc, its subsidiaries and associated persons," the SFO said in a statement.</p>
<p>BAT reported a 15.7% increase in revenue in its <a href="http://www.bat.com/group/sites/uk__9d9kcy.nsf/vwPagesWebLive/DOAPMBSJ/$FILE/medMDAPMNKB.pdf?openelement">half year results</a> last week. The rise was helped by the drop in sterling, since around 90% of the company's sales occur outside the UK. The report also noted the "ongoing investigation into misconduct allegations," and said the company was liaising with the SFO and other relevant authorities.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/british-american-tobacco-bribery-charges-serious-fraud-office-inquiry-2017-8#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-st-martin-estate-massive-price-cut-2017-8">Trump’s Caribbean estate got a massive price cut — take a look inside the $16.9 million residence</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/r-pakistans-top-court-disqualifies-pm-sharif-from-office-2017-7Pakistan's prime minister resigns after being disqualfied over corruption chargeshttp://www.businessinsider.com/r-pakistans-top-court-disqualifies-pm-sharif-from-office-2017-7
Fri, 28 Jul 2017 04:06:00 -0400Asif Shahzad and Drazen Jorgic
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/59646bbd5124c95577c781c8-800/pakistan-pms-family-rejects-findings-in-corruption-probe.jpg" alt="Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif gestures as he speaks to media after appearing before a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) in Islamabad, Pakistan June 15, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif gestures as he speaks to media after appearing before a Joint Investigation Team in Islamabad" /></p><p>ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -<span>&nbsp;Pakistan</span>'s&nbsp;<span>Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigned on Friday, just hours after the country's&nbsp;</span>top court disqualified him after a damning corruption probe into his family wealth, cutting short his third stint in power.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court dismissed Sharif after an investigative panel alleged his family could not account for its vast wealth. The court also ordered a criminal investigation against the premier and his family.</p>
<p>"He is no more eligible to be an honest member of the parliament, and he ceases to be holding the office of prime minister," Judge Ejaz Afzal Khan said in court.</p>
<p>Sharif, 67, has always denied any wrongdoing and has dismissed the investigation into him as biased and inaccurate.</p>
<p>Sharif's allies have alleged there was a conspiracy to unseat him.</p>
<p>"This is not accountability, it is revenge," tweeted Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq hours before the verdict was announced. "In an effort dislodge us, the democratic system has been made a target."</p>
<p>Sharif's two previous stints in power were also cut short, including by a military coup in 1999, but he came back from exile to win a resounding victory in the 2013 general elections.</p>
<p>His ruling PML-N party, which has a majority in the parliament, is now expected to appoint a new prime minister.&nbsp;</p>
<p>(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Kay Johnson and Clarence Fernandez)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/pakistan-china-relations-friendships-2017-7" >The strained relationship between China and Pakistan</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-pakistans-top-court-disqualifies-pm-sharif-from-office-2017-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-7-people-arya-stark-kill-list-game-of-thrones-hbo-deaths-prayer-2017-8">Here's everyone left on Arya Stark's kill list on 'Game of Thrones'</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/rio-tinto-guinea-leaked-executive-emails-corruption-investigation-2017-7'This is not a standard situation:' Read the emails between Rio Tinto executives that sparked a corruption investigationhttp://www.businessinsider.com/rio-tinto-guinea-leaked-executive-emails-corruption-investigation-2017-7
Tue, 25 Jul 2017 07:48:45 -0400Camilla Hodgson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/597730779d091841477aaf66-2400/rtr4whyy.jpg" alt="iron ore" data-mce-source="Reuters" data-mce-caption="Visitors examine iron ore pellets produced by the LKAB mine in Kiruna, a mining town in the Swedish Arctic March 30, 2015. " /></p><p>LONDON &ndash; The UK's Serious Fraud Office and the Australian Federal Police opened a corruption investigation into&nbsp;a multimillion dollar payment made by mining giant Rio Tinto to a private consultant.</p>
<p>The investigations follow the company voluntarily alerting the SFO, AFP and US Department of Justice to a payment of $10.5 million to Fran&ccedil;ois Polge de Combret, for his work on the Simandou project, a mining region in Guinea.</p>
<p>"The SFO is investigating suspected corruption in relation to the conduct of business in the Republic of Guinea by the Rio Tinto group, its employees and other associated with it," the SFO said in a statement.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for Rio Tinto said "it&nbsp;will fully co-operate with the Serious Fraud Office and any other relevant authorities, as it has done since it self-reported in November 2016."</p>
<p>Fueling the investigation is a series of leaked internal Rio Tinto emails from May 2011, which were written&nbsp;soon after the company had been granted permission to mine in the region. The leak, from 2016, shows top executives discussing the multimillion dollar fee, and how important de Combret &mdash; a former Lazard investment banker with close ties to the President of Guinea &mdash; had been&nbsp;in securing the deal in Simandou.</p>
<p><strong>"Closeness to the President"</strong></p>
<p>On the 10th May 2011, Alan Davies, the then head of energy and minerals and senior executive in charge of the project, <a href="https://theaustralianatnewscorpau.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/confidential-email-correspondence-between-executive-at-rio-tinto-pdf.pdf">emailed Sam Walsh, the then the head of iron ore.</a> He said de Combret had requested $10.5 million for "services on securing [Simandou blocks] three and four," although did not explain the exact nature of these services.</p>
<p>The fee, he said, is "clearly stated as his bottom line, and a reduction from his request of $15 million."</p>
<p>Davies acknowledged this was "a lot of money," but said the "result we achieved was significantly improved by Fran&ccedil;ois' contribution and his very unique and unreplaceable services and closeness to the President." Fran&ccedil;ois, said Davies, had "vouched for our integrity when it was needed and helped bring us together when things were looking extremely difficult."</p>
<p>Fran&ccedil;ois, Davies said, had "helped me on a number of communication issues with the President and the Minister of Mines." The consultant was "extremely valuable insurance that things do go smoothly as we bed down the arrangements".</p>
<p>Davies also said he was "extremely worried" about the prospect of losing the "direct connection to the President," and moving forward, said he was "extremely pessimistic" about the chances of securing "a useful position in relation to [Simandou blocks] one and two" without Fran&ccedil;ois' "invaluable" services.</p>
<p>"This is not a standard situation," he said, and asked Walsh to approve the $10.5 million fee.</p>
<p><strong>"Sizeable risk"</strong></p>
<p>In another email sent to CEO Tom Albanese, entitled "Confidential: Fran&ccedil;ois de Combret," Walsh said Davies had "attempted to settle with Fran&ccedil;oisat $7.5 million, but he is holding out for $10.5 million."</p>
<p>There is "no question," he said, that Fran&ccedil;ois "delivered sizeable value," but he noted there was "also no question that there is still sizeable risk going forward."</p>
<p>Walsh then suggested that the $10.5 million be put aside for Fran&ccedil;ois, but that this payment be contingent "on the first shipment."</p>
<p>Davies and another top executive, Debra Valentine, were fired last year for their dealings with Fran&ccedil;ois. A statement from Rio Tinto said they had "failed to maintain the standards expected of them under our global code of conduct." Meanwhile, Walsh had his bonus suspended in March, pending the investigation's results. Depending on what the authorities turn up, the company could also face heavy fines.</p>
<p>In 2014, US authorities jailed a representative of another mining company, BSG Resources, for accepting bribery in the region.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rio-tinto-guinea-leaked-executive-emails-corruption-investigation-2017-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-stock-price-lagging-market-iphone-8-2017-7">Apple is lagging the market as iPhone 8 woes mount</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-conflicts-risks-to-poor-2017-7Trump is the most conflicted president in modern US history — and a new report highlights the dangershttp://www.businessinsider.com/trump-conflicts-risks-to-poor-2017-7
Sat, 22 Jul 2017 05:02:00 -0400Pedro Nicolaci da Costa
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5964f5e7d9fccd4b018b59da-914/ap17186722606194.jpg" alt="Donald Trump golfing" data-mce-source="Patrick Semansky/AP" /></p><p>Donald Trump is the most conflicted president&nbsp;in modern US history.</p>
<p>He handpicked his daughter and son-in-law as leading advisers, is the only modern-day president to have never released his tax returns, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-conflict-of-interest-with-china-2017-2">continues to profit from multi-national businesses bearing his name.<br /><br /></a><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">His Washington hotel has become a destination for some foreign government spending, and then there's the question of how the Trump family's business ties affect&nbsp;foreign policies.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>One tenet of his tax outline is a pass-through tax that would benefit him tremendously on a personal level. Sometimes it's even pretty small potatoes: Remember when U.S. embassies around the world briefly promoted Mar-A-Lago?&nbsp;<br /><br /><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">All of this has opened Trump and his family up to the criticism that they're misusing his presidency for personal gain.&nbsp;</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Why should we care? A&nbsp;</span>new International Monetary Fund analysis of <a href="https://blogs.imf.org/2017/07/14/corrosive-and-costly-corruption/">corruption's corrosive economic and social effects</a>, is instructive.</p>
<p><em>To be clear:</em> the IMF is not suggesting&nbsp;the Trump administration is corrupt. That claim is surfacing more often among his political opponents, but that's not really the point here.&nbsp;<br /><br />The point is that governments focused on the well being of government officials rather than citizens &mdash; on any scale &mdash; are particularly harmful to the poorest in society. In these places,&nbsp;"<span>infant mortality and dropout rates are especially high, partly due to less spending on health and education. Reduced investment in these areas tends to hurt poor people the most, and contributes to higher inequality," the IMF says.</span></p>
<p><span>The Federal Reserve&rsquo;s Community Advisory Committee recently released a report suggesting <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fed-community-advisory-committee-focuses-on-deep-us-economic-inequities-2017-7">Trump&rsquo;s budget</a> would have similar effects in the United States.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span>"While capital markets have shown continuing signs of strength, recent budget proposals and executive actions by the new administration, if enacted, would severely constrain capital flow into low- and moderate-income communities," the Fed&rsquo;s community council said.</span></p>
<p><span>In addition to hurting public trust and cutting out the most vulnerable from economic life, corruption can undermine fiscal policy itself &mdash; the ability of governments to tax and spend. </span></p>
<p><span>"When a significant portion of the population does not pay taxes, the entire tax system can be delegitimized," says IMF legal counselor Sean Hagan says in a video accompanying the analysis.</span></p>
<p><span>The report says "corrupt officials are less likely to invest in things that promote inclusive growth and benefit society&mdash;like health and education services. Instead, they may choose wasteful construction projects for their GDP."</span></p>
<p><span><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/597214d9552be51c008b5b37-734/imf corruption chart.png" alt="IMF Corruption Chart" data-mce-source="International Monetary Fund" /></span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2016/sdn1605.pdf">The Fund&rsquo;s in-depth corruption study</a>, published last year, also contains passages with echoes of&nbsp;the Trump administration&rsquo;s first six months in office &mdash; particularly its distrust of career, non-partisan government bureaucrats. </span></p>
<p><span>"While building institutions is a complex and time-consuming exercise that involves a number of intangible elements that may seem beyond the reach of government policy, the objective is clear: the development of a competent civil service that takes pride in being independent of both private influence and public interference," the Fund says.</span></p>
<p>Trump has vowed to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-budget-cuts-2017-3">slash State Department funding by nearly a third,</a> one of many key government functions <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-budget-impact-on-economy-2017-3">on the chopping block in his proposed&nbsp;budget.</a></p>
<p><span>"With such dire social and economic consequences at stake, the fight against corruption is a priority for the IMF and our member countries," the multilateral lender concludes. </span></p>
<p><span>Keep in mind, the IMF is based in Washington, and the United States is one its most influential members. Perhaps that vigilance should begin at home. </span></p>
<p><span>The Fund recently issued a <a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/imf-sows-doubts-on-trump-agenda-us-growth-prospects-2017-6-1002128357">direct and damning assessment of Trump&rsquo;s economic agenda</a>&nbsp;in its latest review&nbsp;of the United States. &nbsp;A separate report, one focused on the types of conflicts and ethical dilemmas the IMF grapples with frequently in the context of borrower nations and how they might apply to lenders too, might be in order.&nbsp;</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fed-community-advisory-committee-focuses-on-deep-us-economic-inequities-2017-7" >A Federal Reserve committee executed a brutal takedown of Trump's budget</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-conflicts-risks-to-poor-2017-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/good-cholesterol-hdl-not-so-good-2017-7">We may have been wrong about ‘good’ cholesterol all this time</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/yao-gang-former-chinese-regulator-found-guilty-of-corruption-2017-7China's former 'King of IPOs' has been found guilty of corruptionhttp://www.businessinsider.com/yao-gang-former-chinese-regulator-found-guilty-of-corruption-2017-7
Fri, 21 Jul 2017 04:03:00 -0400Camilla Hodgson
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5971b58256152c2afa5378a9-2400/rtx1pno5.jpg" alt="China stock market investors" data-mce-source="Aly Song/REUTERS" data-mce-caption="An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China, August 26, 2015. China's central bank cut interest rates and lowered the amount of reserves banks must hold for the second time in two months on Tuesday, ratcheting up support for a stuttering economy and a plunging stock market that has sent shockwaves around the globe. REUTERS/Aly Song" data-link="http://pictures.reuters.com/archive/CHINA-MARKETS-GF10000182843.html" /></p><p>LONDON &ndash; Yao Gang, the former vice chairman and second-in-command at China's securities regulator, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), has been found guilty of corruption.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A two-year investigation by China's anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, found Gang had&nbsp;"<a href="http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/jlsc/zggb/djcf_zggb/201707/t20170720_103254.html">violated party discipline</a>," and was guilty of "abusing his power to seek benefits and accepted huge amounts of money."</p>
<p>Gang has been removed from office and expelled from the Communist Party.</p>
<p>He became&nbsp;Deputy Director and Director of the Futures Supervision Department of the CSRC in 1993, and was made&nbsp;Vice Chairman in 2008.</p>
<p>His role included approving applications for initial public offerings (IPO) &mdash; in which shares of a company are sold to the public for the first time &mdash; which earned him the nickname "King of IPOs" for how quickly he processed applications.</p>
<p>He then moved to overseeing fixed income and futures markets.</p>
<p>But a <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/chinas-stock-crash-make-beijings-biggest-challenge-even-harder-2015-7">crash in the Chinese stock market </a>in 2015, which saw it lose $5 trillion in value, prompted an investigation. The crash was found to have been due in part to&nbsp;financial speculation and short sellers, and Gang's&nbsp;former secretary was found guilty of insider trading.</p>
<p>An investigation into Xiang Junbo, previously one of China's top banking regulators, was also begun earlier this year.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/yao-gang-former-chinese-regulator-found-guilty-of-corruption-2017-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mark-zuckerberg-ai-artificial-intelligence-disagreement-debate-2017-7">Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are waging a war of words over the future of AI</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/r-ex-mexican-governor-likely-extradited-from-guatemala-by-end-july-lawyer-2017-7Former Mexican governor may be extradicted from Guatemala by the end of Julyhttp://www.businessinsider.com/r-ex-mexican-governor-likely-extradited-from-guatemala-by-end-july-lawyer-2017-7
Tue, 04 Jul 2017 15:32:00 -0400Sofia Menchu
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/595be948a3630f16128b6470-2400/javier-duarte-mexico.jpg" alt="Javier Duarte Mexico" data-mce-source="Reuters" data-mce-caption="Javier Duarte, governor of the state of Veracruz, attends a news conference in Xalapa, Mexico, August 10, 2015. Duarte provided a statement as part of the investigations into the murders of five people, including news photographer Ruben Espinosa." /></p><p>GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Javier Duarte, a former state governor from Mexico's ruling party wanted on charges of embezzlement and organized crime, is likely to be extradited from Guatemala by the end of this month, his lawyer said on Tuesday.</p>
<p>During a break in proceedings at a courthouse in Guatemala City discussing federal charges against Duarte, his lawyer told Reuters it was now most likely the ex-governor of the Gulf state of Veracruz would be extradited to Mexico before the end of July.</p>
<p>"We calculate that the extradition process will take between 15 and 18 working days," Carlos Velasquez said.</p>
<p>Last week, Duarte accepted a request relating to state offences for his extradition, and in Tuesday's court appearance the 43-year-old also agreed to the federal extradition demand.</p>
<p>Duarte, who governed Veracruz for President Enrique Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) until last year, denies any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>He was arrested in Guatemala in April after weeks on the run and is being held in a military prison in the capital.</p>
<p>The former governor has been accused of using state institutions to funnel public funds into private companies.</p>
<p>Under Duarte's rule, Veracruz descended into a chaotic cycle of violence, with mass graves having been discovered after he left office.&nbsp;</p>
<p>(Reporting by Sofia Menchu)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-fugitive-mexican-ex-gov-javier-duarte-detained-in-guatemala-2017-4" >Fugitive Mexican ex-Gov. Javier Duarte detained in Guatemala</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-ex-mexican-governor-likely-extradited-from-guatemala-by-end-july-lawyer-2017-7#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-you-may-have-missed-season-7-episode-5-game-of-thrones-hbo-jon-snow-targaryen-dragons-easter-eggs-2017-8">6 details you might have missed on season 7 episode 5 of 'Game of Thrones'</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazil-authorities-seek-arrest-of-95-rio-de-janeiro-police-officers-2017-6Brazil wants to arrest 95 Rio de Janeiro cops suspected of giving guns and info to powerful gangshttp://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazil-authorities-seek-arrest-of-95-rio-de-janeiro-police-officers-2017-6
Fri, 30 Jun 2017 09:51:00 -0400
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/595589f95124c9a36b608e89-450-300/brazil-authorities-seek-arrest-of-95-rio-de-janeiro-police-officers-2017-6.jpg" alt="Police officers escort men in civilian clothes as they arrive to a police headquarters during an operation against allegedly corrupt cops in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes" border="0" /></p><p>RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian authorities issued arrest warrants on Thursday for 95 police officers in Rio de Janeiro state who they say have sold arms and tipped off drug gangs to future operations, in the largest such effort yet to root out corrupt officers.</p>
<p>Another 90 arrest warrants were issued for suspected drug traffickers, police and state prosecutors said in an emailed statement.</p>
<p>By midday, about 50 people had been arrested, roughly half of them police, authorities said.</p>
<p>Investigators said they were targeting police who maintain ties to the powerful drug gangs that control vast swaths of metropolitan Rio de Janeiro.</p>
<p>Police were accused of selling powerful rifles to gang leaders and tipping them off to police actions that would be carried out in the slums the gangs control in return for bribes.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier; editing by Steve Orlofsky)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cartel-gang-violence-in-reynosa-nuevo-laredo-matamoros-mexico-border-2017-6" >Turmoil in Mexico's criminal underworld is intensifying the violence in a valuable border territory</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazil-authorities-seek-arrest-of-95-rio-de-janeiro-police-officers-2017-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/highest-prison-populations-world-usa-brazil-india-china-russia-incarceration-2016-12">These are the countries with the highest prison populations</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/philadelphia-prosecutor-pleads-guilty-to-corruption-goes-to-prison-2017-6Philadelphia's top prosecutor has plead guilty to corruption and is going to prisonhttp://www.businessinsider.com/philadelphia-prosecutor-pleads-guilty-to-corruption-goes-to-prison-2017-6
Fri, 30 Jun 2017 09:24:25 -0400Anthony Izaguirre
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/59564fa1a3630f88018b6a75-2400/rtxznt1.jpg" alt="Seth Williams" data-mce-source="Tim Shaffer (Reuters)" data-mce-caption="Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams (C) makes remarks about the sentence of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell." />PHILADELPHIA (AP) &mdash; The city's top prosecutor pleaded guilty Thursday to a corruption charge, resigned from office and was sent immediately to jail by a judge who said he couldn't be trusted.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">In a surprise development two weeks into his federal trial, District Attorney <span>Seth</span>&nbsp;<span>Williams</span> pleaded guilty to a single count of accepting a bribe from a businessman in exchange for legal favors.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">"I'm very sorry," <span>Williams</span> told the court, choking up as he acknowledged he would resign.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond said he was not inclined to trust <span>Williams</span>' assurances about appearing for sentencing set for Oct. 24, so he ordered him jailed. He was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Diamond said he was "appalled" by the evidence he heard during the jury trial, and had concluded <span>Williams</span> "sold" his office.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><span>Williams</span>, 50, faces up to five years in prison under a plea deal struck during the middle of the night after a series of phone calls.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">"He's been humbled by the experience and he's very sorry for his conduct," said defense attorney Thomas Burke.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><span>Williams</span>, a graduate of Georgetown Law School, was the city's first black district attorney. He spent years as an assistant prosecutor and became the city's inspector general, tasked with rooting out corruption, before first winning office in 2009.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The two-term Democrat had named his chief of staff, Kathleen Martin, as acting district attorney after his indictment in March forced him to surrender his law license. She said Thursday that "Philadelphians should know that their District Attorney's Office continues the pursuit of justice."</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><span>Williams</span> did not run for re-election in May. Civil rights attorney Larry Krasner won the Democratic nomination and, in this overwhelmingly Democratic city, is the heavy favorite in the fall election against Republican Beth Grossman.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><img src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5942f518e92b9401922ccaad-2400/ap090305048556.jpg" alt="Philadelphia" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Matt Rourke" data-mce-caption="Philadelphia, Pennsylvania." /></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The plea came after a trial featuring damaging testimony about a stream of money and gifts showered on him, from a lavish Caribbean vacation to cash bribes.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">He was also accused of fraudulently using thousands of dollars from his campaign fund for personal expenses, misusing city vehicles and misappropriating money intended to fund his mother's nursing home care.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">He had been charged with 29 counts of bribery, extortion and fraud. Although 28 counts were dismissed, prosecutors said that <span>Williams</span> admitted he committed all the conduct.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">The charge he pleaded guilty to stemmed from a relationship with a businessman who admitted providing <span>Williams</span> with a vacation in the Dominican Republic, a $3,000 sofa and thousands of dollars in cash payments. The former district attorney must forfeit nearly $65,000 gained through bribes and fraud as part of his plea deal.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">"Today's conviction is a great victory in the battle against corrupt conduct by public officials," said <span>William</span> Fitzpatrick, New Jersey's acting U.S. attorney, who oversaw the case after Justice Department officials in Philadelphia recused themselves because of their work over the years with <span>Williams.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><span><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5915c866e559f119018b4c5b-883/shutterstock180201077.jpg" alt="Philadelphia skyline" data-mce-source="f11photo/Shutterstock" /></span></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;"><span>Williams</span> is just the latest in a long run of Philadelphia politicians to be convicted of corruption. Just in the past 10 years, they have included former U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, found guilty in 2016 in a racketeering scheme; the former speaker and four other members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives; two members of the Pennsylvania Senate; and a Philadelphia city councilman.</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Last year, in a sign he could be facing charges, <span>Williams</span> belatedly filed financial disclosure reports showing he had accepted about $175,000 in cash, gifts and trips from friends as he struggled to maintain his family's lifestyle after a divorce. He was fined $62,000 by the city ethics board, its largest fine ever.</span></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-mayor-charged-with-corruption-hosts-cruise-to-pay-legal-fees-2017-5" >New Jersey mayor charged with corruption just hosted a cruise to help pay his legal fees</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/philadelphia-prosecutor-pleads-guilty-to-corruption-goes-to-prison-2017-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/details-game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-4-hbo-jon-snow-daenerys-2017-8">8 details you might have missed on season 7 episode 4 of 'Game of Thrones'</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-president-temer-charged-with-corruption-2017-6Brazil President Temer has been charged with corruption by top prosecutorhttp://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-president-temer-charged-with-corruption-2017-6
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 20:53:34 -0400Ricardo Brito and Brad Brooks
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/59519f6ad084cc1d008b5af7-569/brazils-top-prosecutor-charges-temer-with-corruption-document.jpg" alt="Brazilian President Michel Temer reacts during a credentials presentation ceremony for several new top diplomats at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Brazilian President Michel Temer reacts during a credentials presentation ceremony for several new top diplomats at Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil" /></p><p>BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's top federal prosecutor charged President Michel Temer on Monday with accepting bribes, the first of what is expected to be a series of formal graft charges against the deeply unpopular leader in the coming weeks.</p>
<p>Prosecutor-General Rodrigo Janot delivered the charges to the Supreme Court, marking a stinging blow to Temer and the first time the public prosecutor has presented charges against a sitting Brazilian president.</p>
<p>Under Brazilian law, the lower house of Congress must now vote on whether to allow the tribunal to try the conservative leader, who replaced impeached leftist President Dilma Rousseff just last year.</p>
<p>Lawmakers within Temer's coalition are confident they have the votes to block the two-third majority required to proceed with a trial. But they warn that support may wane if congressmen are forced to vote several times to protect Temer - whose popularity is languishing in single-digits - from trial.</p>
<p>Temer's office and his attorney, Antonio Mariz, did not respond to requests for comment. Temer has repeatedly said he is innocent of any wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Temer was charged in connection with a graft scheme involving the world's largest meatpacker, JBS SA. Executives said in plea-bargain testimony the president took nearly $5 million in bribes for resolving tax matters, freeing up loans from state-run banks and other matters.</p>
<p>Joesley Batista, one of the brothers who control JBS, recorded a conversation with Temer in which the president appears to condone bribing a potential witness. Batista also accused Temer and aides of negotiating millions of dollars in illegal donations for his Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB).</p>
<p>For more than three years, investigators in Brazil have uncovered stunning levels of corruption enveloping the political class and business elites. Much of it centered on companies paying billions of dollars in bribes to politicians and executives at state-run enterprises for lucrative contracts.</p>
<p>Temer and one-third of his cabinet, as well as four former presidents and dozens of lawmakers are under investigation or already charged in the schemes.</p>
<p>The scandals reduce the chances that Temer can push through reforms crucial for Latin America's biggest economy to rebound from its worst recession on record.</p>
<p>Key lawmakers in Temer's alliance told Reuters, on condition of anonymity, they will halt work on proposed labor reforms if forced to vote on charges against the president.</p>
<p>Temer's supporters say they have between 250 and 300 votes in the 513 seat lower house to block a trial. But the president is expected to soon face charges of racketeering and obstruction of justice, each requiring a separate vote.</p>
<p>On Monday, the federal police recommended charging Temer with obstruction of justice - the first step toward a new round of charges.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Tom Brown)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/temer-bribery-scandal-brazil-markets-2017-5" >Brazilian markets are getting rocked amid another growing political scandal</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-president-temer-charged-with-corruption-2017-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/andew-zimmern-biggest-mistake-eating-steak-bizzare-foods-travel-channel-2017-7">The biggest mistake everyone makes when eating steak, according to Andrew Zimmern</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/ian-bremmer-indian-prime-minister-narendra-modi-has-transformed-country-2017-6IAN BREMMER: 'The biggest opportunity out there right now has got to be India'http://www.businessinsider.com/ian-bremmer-indian-prime-minister-narendra-modi-has-transformed-country-2017-6
Wed, 07 Jun 2017 10:03:16 -0400Nathaniel Lee and Sara Silverstein
<p>Ian Bremmer, a geopolitical analyst and president of the Eurasia Group, explains why India has the best investment opportunities. Following is a transcript of the video.</p>
<p><em>The biggest opportunity out there right now has got to be India. I mean, you've got a prime minister who is enormously popular because he is clean and he is capable. He is truly incorruptible. In a country of well over a billion people, the fact that you finally have a leader that normally doesn't take any money himself but ensures that people around him don't and he is — his policies are first and foremost oriented at trying to take the wealth and resources of the Indian country and get it to the people who actually need them and get rid of all of the ugly layers of bureaucracy that have been lining their own pockets have made him popular. And it's given him enough capital politically to allow him to do things like build infrastructure and create a national goods and service tax and start to begin to reform the Indian system in a way that it will allow it to grow in a greater degree. When he was running Gujarat state, it was experiencing double-digit growth. You were able to travel there and see that you could set up a business and the infrastructure worked. I think more of India will start looking like Gujarat because of that. In a country that big, it's a slow process, it's going to take a long time. But ultimately, that's extraordinary and over a billion people you're talking about — like about 15% of the entire planet's population. That's really good news.</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ian-bremmer-indian-prime-minister-narendra-modi-has-transformed-country-2017-6#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-odebrecht-corruption-scandal-2017-5One company has thrown politics in the Western Hemisphere completely off-kilterhttp://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-odebrecht-corruption-scandal-2017-5
Tue, 30 May 2017 14:17:00 -0400Linette Lopez
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/592db0df79474c1c008b533b-1600/rtx36x6v.jpg" alt="odebrecht protest dominican republic" data-mce-source="Reuters" data-mce-caption="People participate in a march against corruption and Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht SA, in Azua, Dominican Republic, May 21, 2017."></p><p>One name has completely disrupted politics in the Western Hemisphere, taken down at least one presidency and threatens to topple another.</p>
<p>It has sent protesters to the streets in more than one nation, and has American officials combing through bank transactions leading to a nebulous web of offshore accounts.</p>
<p>The name is Odebrecht — it's a Brazilian construction company that became an international giant over years of using bribery and corruption to secure around 100 projects in 12 countries, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/919911/download">generating ill-gotten gains of about $3.3 billion.</a></p>
<p>That $3.3 billion, however, has nothing on the impact Odebrecht will have on history. In the countries where it operated — especially in Brazil and the Dominican Republic — the revelation that Odebrecht's corruption reached the highest levels of government has destroyed storied careers and crippled political parties.</p>
<p>Former left wing Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was an Odebrecht casualty. She was forced to step down from office last year. Her right wing successor, Michel Temer may not survive his full tenure in office either. Recently, tapes of him encouraging bribes leaked to the public, and on Sunday Brazilians held yet another<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40081859"> massive protests calling for his resignation.</a></p>
<p>In Peru, a judge ordered the arrest of former President Alejandro Toledo, who was accused of <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-orders-arrest-of-former-peruvian-president-alejandro-toledo-in-odebrecht-bribery-case-1486698137?mg=id-wsj">accepting millions from Odebrecht</a>. Another governor has been placed in "preventative prison" for 1<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-peru-corruption-idUSKBN17B0XJ">8 months for accepting $4 million</a> in bribes as protesters have taken to the streets.</p>
<p>In Colombia, prosecutors are investigating whether or not President Juan Manuel Santos' 2014 campaigned received improper donations from Odebrecht. Protesters in Guatemala have also called for the resignation of their president and any other politicians involved in the scandal.</p>
<p>In the Dominican Republic, almost a dozen officials <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dominican-corruption-idUSKBN18P1S7">were arrested on Monday</a> on suspicion of involvement with the $92 million in bribes Odebrecht paid there. According to the Justice Department, the company made $163 million from those bribes.</p>
<p>Odebrecht also operates in Angola, Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Mozambique, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/592db167b74af41b008b5296-1600/odebrecht.jpg" alt="odebrecht protest peru" data-mce-source="Reuters" data-mce-caption="ople take part in a protest against corruption in Lima, Peru after a scandal involving bribes Brazil's Odebrecht distributed in Peru, February 16, 2017. The sign reads, &amp;quotRats to jail&amp;quot."></p>
<h2>Here's how you scam the entire Western Hemisphere</h2>
<p>The US is investigating Odebrecht for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act because the company allegedly made million in corrupt payments from New York City and held meetings in Miami. The Justice Department complaint reads like a Bond-villain's backstory.</p>
<p>According to the Feds, Odebrecht started bribing officials around 2001. In 2006, though, things got really streamlined. The company created an entire division simply for making corrupt payments — it was called the Division of Structure Operations. It had a separate computer process from the rest of the company for its communications and payments.</p>
<p>Naturally, there was an opaque and complicated structure of offshore accounts. Payments could go through up to four levels of offshore bank accounts before reaching their final destination. To further streamline this process, in 2010 or 2011 Odebrecht bought a branch of an Austrian bank in Antigua.</p>
<p>This is how the company managed to pay out $788 million in bribes.</p>
<p>Of course, everything came crashing down around 2014, when Brazilian officials initiated a sting known as Operation Car Wash. This sting had everything — public arrests, briefcases of cash, private planes, big name politicians, you name it.</p>
<p>A lot of the money Odebrecht was stealing came form country's quasi-state owned oil company, Petrobras. The company's stock has lost over a quarter of its value since then, as prosecutors calculated that $2.1 billion had gone missing from its balance sheet. Brazilian authorities arrested Marcelo Odebrecht, the head of the company, along with a few other executives back in 2015.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/592db063b74af40c508b4bbf-1333/marcelo odebrecht ceo odebrecht.jpg" alt="Marcelo Odebrecht CEO Odebrecht" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil" data-mce-caption="Marcelo Odebrecht, CEO of Brazilian construction group Odebrecht, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Lima May 1, 2013."></p>
<p>"The fraud happened externally," said Carlos Lima, one of the nine prosecutors charged with investigating the case. "I don’t see how Petrobras could, as a company with an auditor, find the fraud in the contract, or how the company could have established controls to avoid this."</p>
<p>Indeed, most of Odebrecht's power came from its ability to engage in bid rigging with a group of cartel companies that would seem to compete for projects, but in reality took turns at Odebrecht's direction.</p>
<p>That's probably why Lima also called the Petrobras scandal a "thing of criminal beauty." With all of the political turmoil Odebrecht caused, however, he'll be around to see it get ugly as well.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-the-odebrecht-corruption-scandal-2017-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-watch-solar-eclipse-without-special-glasses-tips-tricks-2017-8">Here's the best way to watch the solar eclipse if you don't have special glasses</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/defense-contractor-accused-sex-prostitution-iraq-base-2017-5Investigators claim they were fired after uncovering a prostitution ring and other crimes on Iraqi military basehttp://www.businessinsider.com/defense-contractor-accused-sex-prostitution-iraq-base-2017-5
Fri, 05 May 2017 16:09:50 -0400Desmond Butler, Lori Hinnant
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56ec155852bcd023008b7426-800/screen-shot-2016-03-18-at-104725-am.png" alt="US army" data-mce-source="Flickr/The U.S. Army" data-mce-caption="USArmy paratroopers assigned to 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, finish boarding an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft loaded with a heavy-drop-rigged Humvee for a night jump onto Malemute Drop Zone, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska." data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/15380143543/in/dateposted/"></p><p></p>
<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — The two American investigators felt a sense of foreboding that Sunday as they headed to an emergency meeting with their boss on the Iraqi air base. But they didn’t expect to be surrounded by armed guards, disarmed, detained against their will — and fired without explanation.</p>
<p>It was March 12 — less than two months ago. Robert Cole and Kristie King were in Iraq working as investigators for Sallyport Global, a U.S. company that was paid nearly $700 million in federal contracts to secure Balad Air Base, home to a squadron of F-16 fighter jets as part of the U.S.-led coalition to annihilate the Islamic State.</p>
<p>They’d uncovered evidence that Sallyport employees were involved in <a href="http://apne.ws/2qytIij">sex trafficking</a>, they said. Staff on base routinely flew in <a href="http://apne.ws/2qytIij">smuggled alcohol</a> in such high volumes that a plane once seesawed on the tarmac under the weight. Rogue militia stole enormous generators off the base using flatbed trucks and a 60-foot crane, driving past Sallyport security guards.</p>
<p>Managers repeatedly shut down Cole and King’s investigations and failed to report their findings to the U.S. government that was footing the bill, the investigators said.</p>
<p>Right before they were fired, Cole and King had opened an investigation into allegations of timesheet fraud among Sallyport employees. In a call with Sallyport lawyers, they said, they were advised to keep two sets of books about potential crimes and contract violations.</p>
<p>“One for the government to see and one for the government not to see,” King told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>The company said that the investigators misinterpreted the instructions.</p>
<p>In a statement to the AP, Sallyport said it follows all contracting rules at the base, home to the F-16s that are a key to the fight against the Islamic State.</p>
<p>“Sallyport has a strong record of providing security and life support services in challenging war zones like Iraq and plays a major but unheralded role in the war against ISIS,” Chief Operating Officer Matt Stuckart wrote. “The company takes any suggestion of wrongdoing at Balad very seriously.”</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/57eec5458b987dcf287a01bd-2048/1717936966581b74251a3k.jpg" alt="f16" data-mce-source="US Air Force photo" data-mce-caption="An F-16 Fighting Falcon, from the Arizona Air National Guard's 162nd Wing, dismounts after refueling from a KC-135 Stratotanker, from the 161st Air Refueling Wing, April 8, 2015, near Tucson, Arizona. " data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usairforce/17179369665/in/photolist-sb5L5H-qF9USD-dpZwxg-8H6DHv-8XpUXd-oPph4W-7xd63f-opThEA-fEKwcT-hyUpau-dHrZxa-oN3ZtU-buYpxk-CT2xKF-ryvBPg-oEkQZs-7wJM6J-pEdCyP-dvyByv-7RXrdo-qBBVfu-obXfFG-qZAxE3-7goySd-g7ukap-kdyPFY-pERV8g-8XmRxk-qjxi5D-8caHdL-p5BaaR-mwr6Bf-qTrkqn-87AFgu-qUCozW-7ynFgJ-qbtR1E-pvyh8h-opSVYY-aPicMi-pqjxFu-7ynEbb-bBDpDV-c8QhDE-dtPic3-ryBruF-7yiRPi-rv9RKZ-kdyQgf-b8tuwV"></p>
<p>More than 150 <a href="http://apne.ws/2p87fqZ">documents</a> obtained by AP, as well as interviews with more than a half-dozen former or current Sallyport employees, show how a contractor ran amok after being hired for lucrative and essential combat support operations. The investigators and other witnesses describe grave security breaches and illegal schemes that went unreported until the government asked about them.</p>
<p>The point behind requiring contractors to employ their own investigators was to limit the waste and corruption that has marred federal security contracting going back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.</p>
<p>The Pentagon’s own auditors, who were frequently on the base 50 miles north of Baghdad, were not told of the serious problems until early this year, a potential violation of law. The Pentagon auditors’ reports, obtained by the AP, detail dozens of more minor infractions. That gap illustrates the limits of U.S. oversight for billions of dollars in contracts run by <a href="https://www.apnews.com/b3fd7213bb0e41b3b02eb15265e9d292/US-misfires-in-online-fight-against-Islamic-State">companies that have cashed in</a> on the fight to protect Americans from extremism.</p>
<p>The Defense Department declined to comment.</p>
<p>The morning of March 12, King had gone to church and was still carrying her Bible when she and Cole walked into the office foyer for the meeting with the boss. To their astonishment, they were immediately surrounded by armed security guards and forced to turn over the 9 mm pistols they both routinely carried on the job.</p>
<p>The boss, David Saffold, informed them they were being fired but wouldn’t say why.</p>
<p>“We knew too much,” King told AP in an interview at her home in Amarillo, Texas. “They want to cover it up and move on because it’s a huge amount of money.”</p>
<p><strong>BODYGUARD OR TERRORIST?</strong></p>
<p>In 2004, Rob Cole was a retired California police officer and licensed private investigator when he decided to go to Iraq for a series of contracting jobs. Like many U.S. contractors working in hazardous regions, he went because the work paid a lot more than he could make back home.</p>
<p>Americans have been at Balad on and off since 2003. Sallyport’s parent company, Michael Baker International, announced in 2014 its subsidiaries had been awarded $838 million for work on the base.</p>
<p>Cole’s first job at Balad was cut short in June 2014, a month after he arrived, when the Islamic State group began sweeping across Iraq and Syria. The extremists ultimately made it to the gates of Balad, which was evacuated.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/587a98f9ee14b68f7b8b5520-2400/2017-01-14t210729z2lynxmped0d094rtroptp4mideast-crisis-iraq-mosul-military.jpg" alt="Iraq ISIS" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Ahmed Saad" data-mce-caption="A member of Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) carries a rocket launcher at the University of Mosul during a battle with Islamic State militants, in Mosul, Iraq, January 14, 2017."></p>
<p>When the Americans went back, they found a looted base largely under the control of Iranian-backed Shiite militias that were supporting the Iraqi government, according to former employees. A former senior manager told the AP that Sallyport reached an understanding with the militias that they would not enter the flight and residential areas. He declined to be named because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter and didn’t want to be blacklisted from future jobs.</p>
<p>Cole, now 62, returned to Balad in May 2015, as Sallyport was preparing for the arrival of American F-16s sold to the Iraqi government. Sallyport’s mission, along with its parent company, was to keep the base operating smoothly, train the Iraqis, and most importantly maintain security on the base, where thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of contractors work.</p>
<p>The federal contract required investigations into potential crimes and violations involving the company’s work at Balad. That was Cole and King’s assignment.</p>
<p>“They wanted someone to be competent enough to process an investigation, if there was a crime, or if someone turned up dead,” King said. “The way it was put to me: If someone turned up with a knife in their back, who are you going to call?”</p>
<p>From the start, it was clear that much was awry on the base. Despite the urgency of fighting IS, the delivery of the F-16s had been delayed by months amid security concerns. It would be catastrophic if IS seized the base and its multimillion-dollar jets.</p>
<p>On July 13, 2015, four F-16s flew in from Arizona, the first of 36 fighter jets that the U.S. planned to deliver.</p>
<p>Brett McGurk, then the U.S. deputy envoy for the international coalition against IS, hailed the arrival in a tweet.</p>
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>
After years of preparation &amp; training in the U.S., Iraqi pilots today landed the 1st squadron of Iraqi F16s in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Iraq?src=hash">#Iraq</a>. <a href="http://t.co/nyOvnJ5Djt">pic.twitter.com/nyOvnJ5Djt</a> </p>— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/620551466923589632">July 13, 2015</a>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div>
<p>“After years of preparation &amp; training in the U.S., Iraqi pilots today landed the 1st squadron of Iraqi F16s in #Iraq,” he wrote.</p>
<p>The first security breach came in less than 24 hours: A long black skid mark on the tarmac was reported. It stopped about 45 yards from the nose of one of the fighter jets. A truck had plowed through a rope barrier in the “no-go” zone, where lethal force is authorized to protect the planes. For more than 10 minutes, no one even responded as the vehicle drove away, according to reports citing surveillance video.</p>
<p>That turned out not to be a terrorist. But Cole says the out-of-control truck was a harbinger. He noted the lax protection for the F-16s in his report and forwarded it to the chief of security, Steve Asher. Under the requirements of the contract, Cole’s report should have then made its way to the Pentagon. But he says Asher kept a lid on the incident.</p>
<p>Three months later, in October 2015, Cole reported another security breach, the theft of a Toyota SUV that Sallyport had assigned to bodyguards to drive VIPs around the base. Cole eventually uncovered a plot by three Iraqi Sallyport staff working with a dangerous Iran-backed militia, known as Kataib Imam Ali.</p>
<p>The Shiite militia was an ongoing headache, politically connected and operating outside the law, with sidelines in theft and gunrunning. It has ties to the leader of the umbrella militia Popular Mobilization Forces, which is on the U.S. list of designated terrorists.</p>
<p>To Cole’s astonishment, the prime suspect threatened to join the militia during his interrogation. He was a Sallyport bodyguard. In fact, the investigators later found a photo of him on his Facebook page, dressed in black militia garb and a patch indicating his allegiance to the group.</p>
<p>He is “viewed by the Investigations Unit as a hard-core recruit to become a terrorist who poses a serious threat to all personnel on this base,” Cole wrote in another report.</p>
<p>The Toyota was recovered within a few days, but Cole was ordered off the case. In an interview with AP, the former senior manager defended the company’s order, saying negotiations with the militias were highly sensitive and had to be handled with Iraqi cooperation. Still, the suspect was supposed to be banned from the base, and Cole later saw the man walking around freely.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/5810af65b28a642b008b4ec7-2400/rtx2qemp.jpg" alt="qayyara iraq us military base" data-mce-source="Reuters/Alaa Al-Marjani" data-mce-caption="American vehicles drive at the U.S. army base in Qayyara, south of Mosul October 25, 2016."></p>
<p><strong>GUMMY BEARS SOAKED IN VODKA</strong></p>
<p>The longer Cole was on the base, the more he suspected that management was turning a blind eye to criminal activity.</p>
<p>On the books, Balad is a dry base, where alcohol is restricted. But in reality the booze was everywhere and everyone knew it. Finding out how it got there led to more troubling questions.</p>
<p>A Sallyport employee who worked in the air terminal reported in late 2015 that co-workers were involved in a smuggling scheme. They were bringing in cases and cases of water bottles filled with liquor that they’d sneaked onto planes flying in from Baghdad.</p>
<p>According to investigative documents and people who watched the smuggling in action, three empty suitcases would routinely be loaded onto a flight to Baghdad. Each time, the bags came back with plastic water bottles filled with liquor. When they were unloaded, the bags were not searched but taken directly outside to be picked up — a serious security risk in a war zone.</p>
<p>“You could be putting a bomb in there,” said one former employee who witnessed the smuggling. “You’ve got people just going rogue.” He spoke only on condition of anonymity because he didn’t want to imperil his new job with a different overseas contractor.</p>
<p>Steve Anderson, who worked on flight logistics, says he was pressured to sign off on faked flight manifests that omitted passenger names and falsified the weight of cargo to cover for the alcohol smuggling and other infractions — a violation of international flight regulations. The planes were getting so weighed down he was worried about flight safety.</p>
<p>“They were playing Russian roulette with the passengers’ lives — including mine,” Anderson said.</p>
<p>Once, he watched a plane that was being unloaded tip nose-forward on its wheels onto the tarmac because it was so overloaded.</p>
<p>“I could hear the people inside the aircraft yelling. I never seen anything like that in my entire life,” he recalled. “It was like a seesaw.”</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/57c4375809d29358008b4e1b-1280/dgrsza2a4f16fm00009.jpg" alt="F16" data-mce-source="The Aviationist via Filip Modrzejewski/Foto Poork" data-link="https://theaviationist.com/2016/08/28/polish-air-force-celebrates-the-10th-anniversary-of-the-f-16-service-with-an-awesome-air-to-air-photoshoot/"></p>
<p>Then out came the telltale bags that he watched get shepherded around security.</p>
<p>When Anderson aired his concerns to management and refused to sign the falsified manifests, his boss said he didn’t want to hear about any more problems.</p>
<p>“He said, ‘If you don’t like the job that you’re doing maybe you ought to find somewhere else to work.’”</p>
<p>Anderson went on a medical leave and was told his position had been filled when he sought to return.</p>
<p>Rumors of the alcohol smuggling reached Cole and King separately. Informants told them that flight line staff, who directed airplanes on the runways and handled cargo, were showing up drunk. In one instance they had passed around a bowlful of <a href="http://apne.ws/2qEIByx">gummy bears soaked in vodka</a> .</p>
<p>The investigators got a tip that the bootleggers were working out of two hotels in Baghdad.</p>
<p>Thinking they were undercover, King and an Iraqi investigator on the team went to one of the hotels, the al-Burhan, five minutes from Baghdad’s airport. She said informants told them the smuggling was run by the hotel manager and a number of Sallyport employees.</p>
<p>During their interviews, they discovered an even more alarming scheme.</p>
<p>The hotel had been running a prostitution ring, and Sallyport employees were among the customers, informants said. Four Ethiopian women who had <a href="http://apne.ws/2qs0kg7">worked as prostitutes</a> at the hotel were later hired in housekeeping by Sallyport, and were still sending money back to a pimp in the al Burhan.</p>
<p>The evidence suggested, the investigators told the AP, that Sallyport managers had either knowingly or unwittingly abetted human trafficking involving vulnerable female immigrants in a war zone, a revelation the company would be required to report to the U.S. government under federal law.</p>
<p>In the hotel’s courtyard, a prime smuggling suspect, who was a Sallyport employee, angrily confronted King and said that a senior manager at the headquarters in Virginia, Roy Hernandez, had tipped him off about the investigation.</p>
<p>On Feb. 15, 2016, Cole and King were ordered by Sallyport’s Balad program manager, Kim Poole, to <a href="http://apne.ws/2qsbNwe">shut down the investigations</a> into both the bootlegging and the prostitution on Hernandez’s instructions, according to the investigators.</p>
<p>The following day, Sallyport sent out an email to staff warning that they might be audited over trafficking and noting that they were required to report violations.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/53921a166bb3f707457d6be5-2400/ramadiaugust2006patrol.jpg" alt="US Army War In Iraq" data-mce-source="Tech. Sgt. Jeremy T. Lock/US Air Force" data-mce-caption="U.S. Army Pfc. Jacob Paxson and Pfc. Antonio Espiricueta, both from Company B (&amp;quotDeath Dealers&amp;quot), 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, attached to Task Force 1st Battalion, 35th Armored Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, provide security from a street corner during a foot patrol in Tameem, Ramadi, Iraq."></p>
<p>But Stuckart says the prostitution allegations were not substantiated.</p>
<p>“It is absurd to suggest that the company would shut down an inquiry into a matter of such gravity,” he said.</p>
<p>A statement after publication acknowledged that the investigation was shut down for a period.</p>
<p>“When the company’s new management learned that the company’s own investigators were supposedly told to shut down their investigation into alcohol and prostitution, the new Corporate Ethics and Compliance Officer instructed the investigators to complete those investigations,” Stuckart said.</p>
<p>His statement referenced an investigative report from Oct. 2016 into rumors of another group of prostitutes on the base. Stuckart noted that those reports were found by the investigators to be unfounded. But the investigators say that inquiry was separate from their original probe that found evidence of prostitution occurring on the base. They say they were never allowed to follow up on that probe.</p>
<p>More than a year later, two of the Ethiopian women were still working on the base, Cole said, and the alcohol smuggling had started back up, according to a report obtained by AP dated May 28, 2016.</p>
<p><strong>“IT WAS MIND-BLOWING”</strong></p>
<p>Late last year, it became clear that little had changed after the earlier security breaches. On Nov. 15, Cole got a report that three large generators had been stolen from the base for a total loss of $1 million.</p>
<p>According to surveillance videos, just before 2 a.m., militia had driven two flatbed trucks and a crane onto the base, driving right past the security gate. Cole estimates the crane, when extended, was at least 60 feet tall. After successfully loading the three generators and partially covering them with burlap, the militia drove off the base unchallenged. The episode lasted three hours.</p>
<p>Cole said they passed within about ten feet of the Sallyport security guard force. “Nobody reported anything. It was a disaster and it was covered up. That is absolutely covered up,” he said. “What if the intent was not to steal but to commit a terrorist act?”</p>
<p>According to Sallyport’s Stuckart, the theft occurred when the Iraqi base commander “granted local militia members access to the base” and said the generators weren’t located in his company’s security zone. “Sallyport had no authority to keep these militia members from taking the generators.”</p>
<p>It was after that incident that a Defense Department auditor, who normally concerned himself with bin tagging, trash collection and the accounting minutiae of base life, began asking questions.</p>
<p>Cole and King had kept all their reports in an investigative log. They had also flagged the important cases to management and they had assumed that the company informed the government.</p>
<p>It became clear from the auditor’s question that he knew nothing about it. “When we finally got the idea that they were hiding all of the stuff from the U.S. government, it was mind-blowing,” said King.</p>
<p><img class="float_left" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/56748c9a5afbd315048b4568-800/aytheon-awarded-235-billion-contract-for-sm-3-missiles.jpg" alt="An aerial view of the Pentagon in Washington August 31, 2010. REUTERS/Jason Reed " data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="An aerial view of the Pentagon in Washington"></p>
<p>By then, clouds were looming for Cole and King. They had begun yet another investigation into timesheet fraud after getting a tip that Sallyport employees were systematically collecting salaries but not working.</p>
<p>They say the company stalled the investigation, ordered every step to be approved by its lawyers and finally told Cole and King in a conference call to keep two sets of books.</p>
<p>The implication for Cole was that they should omit from the government’s copy anything that would “be controversial and would reveal any failure or embarrassing detail.” The lawyers explained that that information was covered under attorney-client privilege. The two investigators, sitting together on the other end of the call, looked at each other in disbelief and shook their heads</p>
<p>“We realized right away that that’s fraud, probably a crime, and we weren’t going to be a part of it,” Cole said.</p>
<p>Shortly after they notified Sallyport that they wanted to interview managers who were suspects, their boss, Saffold, asked them to come to his office. It was Sunday morning, and King left church early.</p>
<p>At an interview in his family home in Georgia, Cole recalled the fine sand that stuck to his sweat as he walked across the base to the meeting. Saffold ordered armed guards to take their pistols and detain the two at their work stations. King burst into tears, and the guards apparently thought better of restraining her when she said she wanted to bring her Bible back to her quarters, the investigators say.</p>
<p>Cole and King said their termination paperwork was signed by the human resources manager they were investigating as part of the timesheet fraud.</p>
<p>In an interview in Texas, where King has returned to work as a reserve deputy in Armstrong County near Amarillo, she expressed regrets.</p>
<p>“It hurts me that I had to leave and not correct issues that were occurring, and it hurts me that they want to cover them up,” she said. “It’s so painful to me, it makes me lose sleep at night. Something’s wrong and did not get right.”</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-sex-for-secrets-scandal-2017-3" >The US Navy's 'sex for secrets' scandal is bigger than anyone thought</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/defense-contractor-accused-sex-prostitution-iraq-base-2017-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-7-people-arya-stark-kill-list-game-of-thrones-hbo-deaths-prayer-2017-8">Here's everyone left on Arya Stark's kill list on 'Game of Thrones'</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/r-exclusive-us-senators-seek-sanctions-other-ways-to-address-venezuela-crisis-2017-5US Senators will seek sanctions, $10 million in humanitarian aid to address Venezuela's crisishttp://www.businessinsider.com/r-exclusive-us-senators-seek-sanctions-other-ways-to-address-venezuela-crisis-2017-5
Wed, 03 May 2017 09:18:00 -0400Patricia Zengerle
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5909ba8e5124c9883ea859ca-450-300/exclusive-us-senators-seek-sanctions-other-ways-to-address-venezuela-crisis-2017-5.jpg" alt="Demonstrators run as they clash with police during a rally against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins" border="0"></p><p>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An influential group of Republican and Democratic U.S. senators will file sweeping legislation on Wednesday to address the crisis in Venezuela, including sanctioning individuals responsible for undermining democracy or involved in corruption, Senate aides said.</p>
<p>The bill would provide $10 million in humanitarian aid to the struggling country, require the State Department to coordinate a regional effort to ease the crisis, and ask U.S. intelligence to report on the involvement of Venezuelan government officials in corruption and the drug trade, according to a copy seen by Reuters.</p>
<p>It also calls on President Donald Trump to take all necessary steps to prevent Rosneft, Russia's state oil company, from gaining control of any U.S. energy infrastructure.</p>
<p>Rosneft has been gaining ground in Venezuela as the country scrambles for cash. The Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA, last year used 49.9 percent of its shares in its U.S. subsidiary, Citgo, as collateral for loan financing by Rosneft.</p>
<p>In total, Rosneft has lent PDVSA between $4 billion and $5 billion.</p>
<p>The measure comes as the international community has struggled to respond to deep economic crisis and street protests in the South American OPEC nation.</p>
<p>Some 29 people have been killed, more than 400 injured and hundreds more arrested since demonstrations against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government began in April amid severe shortages of food and medicine, deep recession and hyper-inflation.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, Venezuela's opposition blocked streets in the capital, Caracas, to denounce Maduro's decision to create a "constituent assembly," which critics said was a veiled attempt to cling to power by avoiding elections.</p>
<p>Senate aides said the bill sought to react to the crisis by working with countries across the Americas and international organizations, rather than unilaterally, while targeting some of the root causes of the crisis and supporting human rights.</p>
<p>U.S. officials have long been reluctant to be too vocal about Venezuela, whose leaders accuse Washington of being the true force behind opposition to the country's leftist government.</p>
<h2><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/58f7c2837522ca1a008b49a1-2400/rts130n4.jpg" alt="Venezuela protest riot police" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Christian Veron" data-mce-caption="Demonstrators clash with riot police during the so-called mother of all marches against Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, April 19, 2017."></h2>
<h2>Prominent sponsors</h2>
<p>The lead sponsors of the legislation are Senator Ben Cardin, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Marco Rubio, the Republican chairman of the panel's western hemisphere subcommittee and a vocal critic of Venezuela's government.</p>
<p>Boosting its chances of getting through Congress, co-sponsors include Senator John Cornyn, the chamber's No. 2 Republican, and Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, as well as Republican Senator John McCain, the influential chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.</p>
<p>The bill has 11 sections, seeking to deal with the crisis with a broad brush.</p>
<p>Addressing corruption, it would require the U.S. State Department and intelligence agencies to prepare an unclassified report, with a classified annex, on any involvement of Venezuelan government officials in corruption and the drug trade.</p>
<p>The U.S. Treasury Department has in the past sanctioned Venezuelan officials or former officials, charging them with trafficking or corruption, a designation that allows their assets in the United States to be frozen and bars them from conducting financial transactions through the United States.</p>
<p>The officials have denied the charges, and called them a pretext as part of an effort to topple Maduro's government.</p>
<p>The new legislation seeks to put into law sanctions imposed under former President Barack Obama's executive order targeting individuals found to "undermine democratic governance" or involved in corruption.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Peter Cooney)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-nearing-end-2017-5" >Venezuela is nearing its end game</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-exclusive-us-senators-seek-sanctions-other-ways-to-address-venezuela-crisis-2017-5#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-uss-gerald-r-ford-aircraft-carrier-nimitz-2017-7">How the US's futuristic new aircraft carrier will change naval warfare forever</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-us-mexico-hunt-corrupt-drug-pushing-officials-2017-4Mexico is getting a jolt from US efforts to bring down top drug and corruption suspectshttp://www.businessinsider.com/afp-us-mexico-hunt-corrupt-drug-pushing-officials-2017-4
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 14:38:00 -0400Anna CUENCA
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/58f036845124c9fe1a19730a-800/afp-us-mexico-hunt-corrupt-drug-pushing-officials.jpg" alt="Mexican marines escort a group of alleged municipal policemen working for the Zeta cartel, five members of the same cartel and nine escaped inmates, in Veracruz, in 2011" border="0"></p><p>Mexico City (AFP) - Crooked cops, greedy governors and pusher-prosecutors: Corruption and drug crime reach to high places in Mexico, which is getting a jolt from US efforts to hunt down top suspects.</p>
<p>Analysts say officials have been getting away for decades with corruption in a country dominated by big, powerful drug gangs.</p>
<p>"There is a systemic problem of corruption among the local and state-level authorities," said Alejandro Hope, a former Mexican intelligence agent who is now a security consultant.</p>
<p>In the latest high-profile case grabbing headlines this week, the former Tamaulipas state governor Tomas Yarrington was arrested in Italy on Sunday.</p>
<p>In 2000 he posed smiling with the then-governor of Texas and future US president, George W. Bush.</p>
<p>Expelled in December from Mexico's governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, Yarrington is wanted on charges of drug-related crimes by both Mexico and the United States.</p>
<p>Several <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-governing-pri-corruption-unpopularity-2018-elections-2016-12" target="_blank">other PRI governors have been accused</a>&nbsp;of corruption and misdealings. Javier Duarte is still on the run; Humberto Moreira was arrested in Spain&nbsp;last<span>&nbsp;year on suspicion of money-laundering and embezzlement, but he was released and is back in Mexico and looking to run for office again.</span></p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/58ec4c955124c9ed43241fb1-800" alt="FILE PHOTO: Tomas Yarrington poses after a news conference in Mexico City, Mexico May 23, 2005. REUTERS/Daniel Aguilar/File Photo" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="FILE PHOTO: Tomas Yarrington poses after a news conference in Mexico City, Mexico"></p>
<p>Mexican authorities offered $800,000 for Yarrington's capture. But analysts say what most sped up his arrest was pressure from up north.</p>
<p>"His detention has happened because the United States wanted it to, not so much because the Mexican government made a decisive decision," says Hope.</p>
<p>Opposition lawmaker Jorge Lopez Martin of the National Action Party called for Yarrington to be judged in the United States and not Mexico, "so that there can be no room for impunity."</p>
<h2>Impunity&nbsp;</h2>
<p>An "impunity index" study last year by the University of the Americas Puebla found that fewer than five percent of crimes reported in Mexico end up being punished.</p>
<p>Other estimates put it much lower —&nbsp;just<span>&nbsp;</span>seven of every 100 crimes<span> in Mexico is reported, and only 4.46% of the crimes that were reported resulted in a conviction, meaning <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-states-manipulating-crime-data-2016-11" target="_blank">less than 1% of crimes in the country are punished</a>.</span></p>
<p>"There is so much corruption, so much impunity, the judicial system is so easily corrupted and the penal system is so useless that it not only allows the drug trade but actually encourages many people to commit crimes," said Jose Antonio Crespo, a political analyst at the Economic Research and Teaching Center.</p>
<p>"They know that the likelihood of being punished is minimal and that with a bit of luck they can buy off the judge and escape."</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/584b33e8a1a45e1a008b4e1e-2400" alt="Humberto Moreira Mexico PRI government" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Susana Ver" data-mce-caption="Humberto Moreira, center, a former ally of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, hugs his wife, Vanessa, as he leaves the Soto del Real penitentiary outside Madrid, Spain, January 22, 2016."></p>
<p>Police in California last month arrested the chief public attorney of the western Mexican state of Nayarit, Edgar Veytia, accused of trafficking cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine.</p>
<p>"They grabbed him there. Over here no one knew about it," Crespo said.</p>
<p>"Often it is the United States that puts an end to impunity. Here, they turn a blind eye."</p>
<h2>Drugs&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Federal authorities have vowed to crack down on crime, but corruption makes that difficult.</p>
<p>The Federal Police last week acknowledged apparent wrongdoing by a senior agent in its drug squad: Ivan Reyes Arzate, who was serving as a liaison with US police.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/55f4319e9dd7cc19008b9f63-2400" alt="Mexico police protest" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Henry Romero" data-mce-caption="Police officers stand guard as members of the teacher's union CNTE (not pictured) march past the Revolution Monument in Mexico City, June 1, 2015."></p>
<p>Reyes turned himself in to police in Chicago after learning that he was being investigated for warning drug gangs when they were infiltrated or spied on.</p>
<p>The force's commissioner Manelich Castilla vowed to crack down on dodgy officers.</p>
<p>"There will be no place in the Federal Police for those who betray the ideals of this institution and the ideals of the country," he told a news conference. "They will be pursued and punished."</p>
<h2>Embezzlement</h2>
<p>Mexicans know the cost of drug crime, which has killed thousands. But corruption angers them even more, Hope says.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/55da079cbd86ef1a008b5440-2400" alt="Javier Duarte Mexico" data-mce-source="Reuters" data-mce-caption="Javier Duarte, governor of the state of Veracruz, attends a news conference in Xalapa, Mexico, August 10, 2015. Duarte provided a statement as part of the investigations into the murders of five people, including news photographer Ruben Espinosa."></p>
<p>One recent case involved the fugitive former governor of the violence-stricken eastern state of Veracruz, Javier Duarte.</p>
<p>He was found to have left behind a store of artworks, antiques, luxury goods and even school and medical supplies apparently intended for social programs.</p>
<p>Embezzlement "generates much greater anger than just links to the drug trade," Hope said.</p>
<p>He said the problem goes back years but is being talked about more nowadays thanks to investigative journalism and social networks.</p>
<p>"The public has got fed up ... and even more so when it involves the theft of public money."</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-governing-pri-corruption-unpopularity-2018-elections-2016-12" >'Who's next?': Mexico's dominant political party is stuck in a mess of its own creation</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-us-mexico-hunt-corrupt-drug-pushing-officials-2017-4#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-corrupt-united-states-politicians-history-nixon-illegal-bribe-extortion-2016-4">Forget Nixon — these are the most corrupt US politicians in history</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-brazilian-ex-speaker-sentenced-to-15-years-for-corruption-2017-3Brazilian politician who took down Dilma Rousseff sentenced to 15 years for corruptionhttp://www.businessinsider.com/afp-brazilian-ex-speaker-sentenced-to-15-years-for-corruption-2017-3
Thu, 30 Mar 2017 15:15:00 -0400
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/58dd30345124c90d5eb894c8-800/afp-brazilian-ex-speaker-sentenced-to-15-years-for-corruption.jpg" alt="Brazil's former President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha, arrives at the Forensic Medicine Institute in Curitiba, on October 20, 2016" border="0"></p><p></p>
<p>Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - The once powerful speaker of Brazil's lower house of Congress Eduardo Cunha was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison in a landmark for the country's battle against rampant, high-level corruption.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The sentence, detailed in a court document signed by top anti-corruption judge Sergio Moro, likely signals the end of the road for a man who spearheaded last year's controversial impeachment of leftist president Dilma Rousseff.</p>
<p>Prosecutors said he took millions of dollars in bribes as part of a sprawling corruption network in which politicians and major contractor embezzled from state oil company Petrobras.</p>
<p>The scandal has upended Brazilian politics, with dozens of politicians accused of participating in the scheme.</p>
<p>Until his arrest in October 2016, Cunha was one of Brazil's most influential politicians.</p>
<p>A leading member of the prominent evangelical conservative movement, he used his position as lower house speaker to out-maneuver Rousseff and engineer her downfall. Rousseff's conservative vice president, Michel Temer, took over and this briefly left Cunha next in the line of succession for the presidency.</p>
<p>Widely hated by Brazilians, Cunha earned a reputation as the ultimate master of dark political arts and was often dubbed Brazil's Frank Underwood —&nbsp;the scheming, corrupt anti-hero of the hit Netflix series "House of Cards" about a US politician.</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-billion-dollar-odebrecht-scandal-engulfs-latin-america-2017-2" >A Brazilian construction giant was leveled by a $3.5 billion bribery fine, and the scandal is rippling through Latin America</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-brazilian-ex-speaker-sentenced-to-15-years-for-corruption-2017-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drone-footage-rio-olympic-maracana-stadium-ghost-town-brazil-fifa-soccer-2017-1">Watch drone footage of Rio’s Olympic stadium that’s now become a ghost town</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-jailed-man-putins-biggest-challenger-alexei-navalny-progress-2017-3Here's what to know about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny —Putin’s biggest critichttp://www.businessinsider.com/russia-jailed-man-putins-biggest-challenger-alexei-navalny-progress-2017-3
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:01:04 -0400Emmanuel Ocbazghi and Veronika Bondarenko
<p>Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-the-latest-russian-opposition-leader-navalny-arrested-2017-6">&nbsp;reportedly arrested again</a> while on his way to a political demonstration in Moscow. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Here's what you need to know about the staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin, who has been at the forefront of some of Russia's biggest anti-government protests.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-jailed-man-putins-biggest-challenger-alexei-navalny-progress-2017-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-anti-corruption-protesters-dmitry-medvedev-2017-3Russian police detain dozens of anti-corruption protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedevhttp://www.businessinsider.com/russia-anti-corruption-protesters-dmitry-medvedev-2017-3
Sun, 26 Mar 2017 09:41:00 -0400Denis Pinchuk and Natalia Shurmina
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/58d7bf09d349f9290d8b6569-2400" alt="An opposition supporter gestures as he blocks a police van transporting detained anti-corruption campaigner and opposition figure Alexei Navalny during a rally in Moscow, Russia, March 26, 2017." data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="An opposition supporter gestures as he blocks a police van transporting detained anti-corruption campaigner and opposition figure Alexei Navalny during a rally in Moscow, Russia, March 26, 2017."></p><p></p>
<p>MOSCOW/YEKATERINBURG (Reuters) - Police detained dozens of protesters across Russia on Sunday, including opposition leader Alexei Navalny, after thousands took to the streets to demonstrate against corruption and demand the resignation of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.</p>
<p>The protests, reckoned to be the biggest since a wave of anti-Kremlin demonstrations in 2011/2012, come a year before a presidential election which Vladimir Putin is expected to contest, running for what would be a fourth term.</p>
<p>Opinion polls suggest the liberal opposition, which Navalny represents, have little chance of fielding a candidate capable of unseating Putin, who enjoys high ratings. But Navalny and his supporters hope to channel public discontent over official corruption to attract more support.</p>
<p>A Reuters reporter saw police detain Navalny, who hopes to run against Putin, as he walked along central Moscow's Tverskaya Street with supporters, part of an unsanctioned rally.</p>
<p><img src="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/58d7bfc2d349f9d7038b7005-2400" alt="Police officers detain anti-corruption campaigner and opposition figure Alexei Navalny during a rally in Moscow, Russia, March 26, 2017." data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Police officers detain anti-corruption campaigner and opposition figure Alexei Navalny during a rally in Moscow, Russia, March 26, 2017."></p>
<p>Police put Navalny in a truck around which hundreds of protesters crowded, trying to open its doors.</p>
<p>"I'm happy that so many people came out (onto the streets) from the east (of the country) to Moscow," Navalny said, moments before he was detained. Other Reuters reporters at the Moscow rally saw at least 100 other detentions as a police helicopter circled overhead.</p>
<p>The Kremlin said on Friday that plans for the central Moscow protest, which the city's authorities had rejected, were an illegal provocation.</p>
<p>Navalny called the protests after publishing allegations that Medvedev, the prime minister, had amassed a huge fortune that far outstripped his official salary.</p>
<p><img src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/58d7c27ed349f932008b713b-2400" alt="Police officers detain an opposition supporter during a rally in Vladivostok, Russia, March 26, 2017." data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="Police officers detain an opposition supporter during a rally in Vladivostok, Russia, March 26, 2017."></p>
<p>Medvedev's spokeswoman called the allegations "propagandistic attacks" unworthy of detailed comment and said they amounted to pre-election posturing by Navalny.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, at a rally in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, a Reuters reporter saw 30 people being detained after unfurling banners reading "The prime minister should answer".</p>
<p>"I've come out (to protest) against corruption and want the authorities to answer the accusations in the Navalny film," 17-year-old student Denis Korneev said at the Moscow protest.</p>
<p>"In many countries the government would have resigned over this."</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/58d7c2e3112f7060008b6f0d-2400" alt="A opposition supporter holds a cutout figure depicting Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during a rally in front of a monument of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin in Vladivostok, Russia, March 26, 2017." data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="A opposition supporter holds a cutout figure depicting Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during a rally in front of a monument of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin in Vladivostok, Russia, March 26, 2017."></p>
<p>Witnesses told Reuters that four people were also detained at a rally in Yekaterinburg in the industrial Urals region.</p>
<p>On Yekaterinburg's Labour Square protesters waved posters reading "We are the authorities here" while nationalists and supporters of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party looked on.</p>
<p>Local media reported that large protests also took place in other cities, including St Petersburg and Novosibirsk. State media broadly ignored Sunday's protests.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Anton Zverev in Moscow and by Alexei Chernyshov in Vladivostok; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Andrew Osborn)</p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-was-corrupt-long-before-putin-2016-4" >Russia was corrupt long before Putin</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-anti-corruption-protesters-dmitry-medvedev-2017-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/andew-zimmern-biggest-mistake-eating-steak-bizzare-foods-travel-channel-2017-7">The biggest mistake everyone makes when eating steak, according to Andrew Zimmern</a></p> http://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-spoiled-rotten-meat-bribery-scandal-economic-recover-2017-3Brazil's latest corruption scandal appears to be rotting one of its major exportshttp://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-spoiled-rotten-meat-bribery-scandal-economic-recover-2017-3
Tue, 21 Mar 2017 12:59:51 -0400Christopher Woody
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/58cef2995124c9435dfe4cf5-800" alt="People detained during the probe known as " data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="People detained during the probe known as &amp;quotOperation Weak Flesh&amp;quot are escorted by police officers as they leave the Institute of Forensic Science in Curitiba"></p><p></p>
<p>Brazilian federal police on Friday launched "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-police-launch-biggest-ever-raid-in-food-fraud-probe-2017-3" target="_blank">Operation Flesh Is Weak</a>," targeting food processors accused of bribing government officials in order to loosen regulations.</p>
<p>With more than 1,100 officers deployed on 194 raids with as many as 38 detention orders, it was the agency's "largest search-and-raid operation ever," according to police.</p>
<p>After a tw0-year investigation, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-corruption-food-idUSKBN16S28V" target="_blank">more than 100 officials </a>were accused of taking bribes to allow the sale of low-quality meat or falsifying documents.</p>
<p>Already, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-brazil-president-calls-emergency-meeting-over-tainted-meat-scandal-2017-3" target="_blank">33 officials</a> have been dismissed.</p>
<p>Bribes reportedly <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/6212-brazil-s-rotten-meat-scandal-threatens-billions-in-annual-exports" target="_blank">ranged from hams</a> to political-party donations (including to the president's party.)</p>
<p>In some instances, investigators <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/6212-brazil-s-rotten-meat-scandal-threatens-billions-in-annual-exports" target="_blank">said</a> inspectors allowed employees to use government computers to issue their own export licenses.</p>
<p>Among the more than <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20170320-business-brazil-rotten-tainted-meat-scandal-exports-champagne-sales" target="_blank">30 companies</a>&nbsp;targeted are JBS, the world's largest beef exporter, and BRF, the world's largest poultry exporter. They are <a href="https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/6212-brazil-s-rotten-meat-scandal-threatens-billions-in-annual-exports" target="_blank">both suspected</a>&nbsp;of using chemicals or mixing in healthy meat to obscure poor quality meat. Both have denied wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Additives like potato, water, or cardboard are believed to have been added in to chicken in some cases to boost profits. Police also said <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/brazil-government-seeks-to-contain-fallout-from-meat-scandal-1490020988" target="_blank">filler like pigs' heads</a> had been used in sausages, though the agriculture minister said doing that was legal in Brazil.</p>
<p>Some of the meat was sold domestically for school meals or retail sale, though no one has been <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-19/brazil-tainted-meat-probe-widens-as-trade-partners-study-impact" target="_blank">reported sick</a> from it.</p>
<p><img src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/58d15492112f70e0018b5acc-2400" alt="Brazil meat industry factory conveyor belt assembly line" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino" data-mce-caption="Employees are seen during a technical visit of Brazil's agriculture minister, Blairo Maggi, at the Brazilian meatpacker JBS SA in the city of Lapa, Parana state, Brazil, March 21, 2017."></p>
<p><span>"We go to the supermarket, we buy meat for our family's consumption, and what do we expect? That it is in good condition," <span>Silvia Farias, a professor who shops in a Rio supermarket,</span> <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-brazil-president-calls-emergency-meeting-over-tainted-meat-scandal-2017-3" target="_blank">told AFP</a>. "I would never imagine that the meat could be mixed with cardboard."</span></p>
<p>The scope of that operation appears to be more than matched by the fallout from its execution.</p>
<p>Brazil is the world's second-largest producer of chicken and beef, sending them to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-brazil-president-calls-emergency-meeting-over-tainted-meat-scandal-2017-3" target="_blank">150 countries</a>, and meat in general is among the country's top exports. Brazil was relying largely on agriculture to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e87e556c-0da9-11e7-b030-768954394623" target="_blank">pull it out</a> of what has been its worst recession in over 100 years.</p>
<p>The head of Brazil's ABPA beef producers associate said on Monday that the scandal had put the Brazilian meat industry in a grave situation. It had "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazil-agriculture-ministry-confirms-china-beef-suspension-2017-3" target="_blank">destroyed</a>" the industry's hard-earned image of quality products, he added.</p>
<p>"At face value, the developing scandal over Brazil's meat exports could plausibly derail the country's economy recovery," Capital Economics wrote <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e87e556c-0da9-11e7-b030-768954394623" target="_blank">in a note</a> cited by the Financial Times. The final consequences, however, hinge on how "events will play out."</p>
<p>Should the scandal deepen and buyers turn away from Brazilian meat, global <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazil-beef-scandal-leaves-fewer-options-for-global-buyers-2017-3" target="_blank">beef prices could rise</a>. Already, some of Brazil's largest meat customers have started scrutinizing or pausing their imports.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/58d15513d349f9290d8b5121-840" alt="Brazil meat industry exports" data-mce-source="Reuters"></p>
<p>China has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazil-agriculture-ministry-confirms-china-beef-suspension-2017-3" target="_blank">temporarily banned</a> beef imports, as has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-hong-kong-bans-brazilian-meat-imports-2017-3" target="_blank">Hong Kong</a>. China, along with Hong Kong, accounted for more than one-third of Brazil's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazil-beef-scandal-leaves-fewer-options-for-global-buyers-2017-3" target="_blank">$13.9 billion</a> in meat-packing exports in 2016.</p>
<p>In the US, which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-brazil-president-calls-emergency-meeting-over-tainted-meat-scandal-2017-3" target="_blank">only started</a> accepting raw-beef imports from Brazil last year, the Department of Agriculture has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-usda-tests-brazilian-beef-for-pathogens-amid-meatpacking-scandal-2017-3" target="_blank">started testing</a> all raw beef and ready-t0-eat products from Brazil for pathogens. Official Brazilian data indicated that the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-19/brazil-tainted-meat-probe-widens-as-trade-partners-study-impact" target="_blank">US bought $297.8 million</a> worth of red meat from Brazil in 2016 — a fraction of the about $200 billion of meat Americans typically eat in a year.</p>
<p>South Korea, which got <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-skorea-bars-sales-of-brazils-brf-chicken-steps-up-inspections-2017-3" target="_blank">80% of its chicken</a> from Brazil last year, will tighten inspections of chicken meat and ban sales of meat from one of the Brazilian companies implicated in the scandal. (That ban <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-corruption-food-idUSKBN16S28V" target="_blank">was lifted</a> on Tuesday.)</p>
<p>Chile has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-usda-tests-brazilian-beef-for-pathogens-amid-meatpacking-scandal-2017-3" target="_blank">curtailed</a> Brazilian meat imports, and the EU has said it would monitor meat imports from Brazil and that any companies involved the scandal would be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazilian-meatpackers-slump-as-china-south-korea-suspend-imports-2017-3" target="_blank">denied access</a> to the EU market. The scandal breaks ahead of <a href="http://www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/news/brazils-rotten-meat-scandal-worries-eu-ahead-of-fresh-trade-talks/" target="_blank">scheduled trade talks</a> between the EU and the Mercosur trade bloc, of which Brazil is a major member, though the European Commission has said it would <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-brazilian-meatpackers-slump-as-china-south-korea-suspend-imports-2017-3" target="_blank">have no impact</a> on the discussions.</p>
<p>The UK has also said it was stepping up checks <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e87e556c-0da9-11e7-b030-768954394623" target="_blank">on the hygiene</a> of meat shipments from Brazil. Irish agriculture groups have called for <a href="http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/farm-organisations-unite-in-calls-for-restrictions-on-sub-standard-brazilian-beef/" target="_blank">an immediate ban</a> on Brazilian beef exports.</p>
<p><img src="http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/58d15553d349f9d7038b5c03-2400" alt="Brazil meat industry sausage inspection lab" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes" data-mce-caption="Members of the Public Health Surveillance Agency collect sausages to analyse in their laboratory, at a supermarket in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 20, 2017."></p>
<p>Brazilian officials and the companies involved have all started doing damage control, attempting to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e87e556c-0da9-11e7-b030-768954394623" target="_blank">downplay</a> the breadth of the scandal and reassure jittery consumers at home and abroad.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-skorea-bars-sales-of-brazils-brf-chicken-steps-up-inspections-2017-3" target="_blank">BRF</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-brazil-president-calls-emergency-meeting-over-tainted-meat-scandal-2017-3" target="_blank">JBS</a> both strongly denied any wrongdoing, and some companies have taken out full-page ads in Brazilian newspapers and bought ads on TV stations.</p>
<p>In a statement to Business Insider, JBS said it was not accused of selling tainted or rotten meat.&nbsp;</p>
<p>“There are no allegations in the judge’s order that JBS or its executive management violated food safety or product quality standards or engaged in any wrongdoing," a JBS spokesman said. "The investigation is focused on the actions of Brazilian Federal Meat Inspectors.&nbsp;Accusations regarding product quality issues have been inappropriately linked to JBS."</p>
<p>President Michel Temer, who called an emergency ministerial <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-brazil-president-calls-emergency-meeting-over-tainted-meat-scandal-2017-3" target="_blank">meeting</a> on Sunday, <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/brazil-tries-to-contain-damage-from-meat-scandal/a-38018293?maca=en-tco-dw" target="_blank">told ambassadors</a> later that night that the scandal was a "major concern," but that tainted meat had come from "only a very few businesses."</p>
<p>To back up his assurances, Temer invited the ambassadors to dinner at a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-19/brazil-tainted-meat-probe-widens-as-trade-partners-study-impact" target="_blank">$39 all-you-can eat steakhouse</a>, where he sat between the Chinese and Angolan ambassadors.</p>
<p><img src="http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/58d1541e112f7060008b5b36-2400" alt="Brazil President Michel Temer meat scandal eating steak house" data-mce-source="REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino" data-mce-caption="Brazil's President Michel Temer eats barbecue in a steak house after a meeting with ambassadors of meat-importing countries, in Brasilia, Brazil, March 19, 2017."></p>
<p>The presidency has also said that only <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-19/brazil-tainted-meat-probe-widens-as-trade-partners-study-impact" target="_blank">21 of 4,000 plants</a> in the country were involved, and that just 33 of the industry's 11,000 workers were being investigated.</p>
<p>The Brazilian agriculture ministry has also sought to sooth nerves, with minister Blairo Maggi saying that the issues uncovered were not widespread.</p>
<p>"Brazil's industry is robust and strong but it isn't infallible," <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-19/brazil-tainted-meat-probe-widens-as-trade-partners-study-impact" target="_blank">he said</a>. "We're making sure that what's being produced is now getting the proper inspection."</p>
<p>Maggi's ministry and Brazilian federal police <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-corruption-food-idUSKBN16S28V" target="_blank">also said</a> late Tuesday that the meatpacking industry's sanitary and corruption incidents&nbsp;were isolated.</p>
<p>Public-health scientists have also expressed confidence in the country's meat.</p>
<p><img style="float:right;" src="http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/58d11ba15124c9ce7997dddc-800" alt="A veterinarian analyses a piece of meat collected by Public Health Surveillance agents during an inspection of supermarkets, at a veterinary laboratory with the public health department in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 20, 2017. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes" data-mce-source="Thomson Reuters" data-mce-caption="A veterinarian analyses a piece of meat collected by Public Health Surveillance agents during an inspection of supermarkets, at a veterinary laboratory with the public health department in Rio de Janeiro"></p>
<p><span>Brazilian food-production hygiene "is good. I think generally it's not a concern ... so when there's a police operation like this it becomes a scandal," Roberta Ribeiro <span>coordinator at Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Public Health Laboratory, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-brazilian-meat-health-inspector-im-a-carnivore-2017-3" target="_blank">told AFP</a></span>. </span></p>
<p><span>One of her colleagues noted that fish and even vegetables could be compromised by contaminants.</span></p>
<p>The tainted-meat scandal, however extensive it may be within the meat industry, is limited to that industry.</p>
<p>But it comes amid the ever widening scandal over allegations that have come out of Operation Car Wash, a massive anti-corruption investigation that has become the <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/brazil-judge-systemic-corruption-generates-enormous-costs" target="_blank">biggest political graft case</a> in the country's history.</p>
<p>Sergio Moro, the judge handing the case, <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/brazil-judge-systemic-corruption-generates-enormous-costs" target="_blank">said last summer</a> that bribery had become "a rule of the game" in Brazil, where "systemic corruption" has created "enormous" costs for the country.</p>
<p><span>"Though corruption fatigue may be setting in for some, this isn't 'just another corruption scandal' in Brazil. Most of the recent scandals in Brazil have involved briberies and illegal uncompetitive coordination around public contracting," regional analyst <a href="http://www.bloggingsbyboz.com/2017/03/food-corruption-in-brazil.html" target="_blank">James Bosworth wrote on Monday</a>. </span></p>
<p><span>But, Bosworth said, "<span>this scandal involving some of Brazil's biggest companies will cause everyone doing business with the country to question whether the products they are importing don't meet the standards required."</span></span></p>
<p><em>This story has been updated with comments from JBS and the Brazilian federal police.</em></p><p><strong>SEE ALSO:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/el-nio-related-storms-flooding-kill-more-than-70-people-in-peru-2017-3" >Devastating photos of the El Niño-driven flooding that has killed more than 70 people in Peru</a></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/brazil-spoiled-rotten-meat-bribery-scandal-economic-recover-2017-3#comments">Join the conversation about this story &#187;</a></p> <p>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drone-footage-rio-olympic-maracana-stadium-ghost-town-brazil-fifa-soccer-2017-1">Watch drone footage of Rio’s Olympic stadium that’s now become a ghost town</a></p>